Netflix suspended three employees, including a transgender, for openly criticising a stand-up show by Dave Chappelle on social media, for its transphobic content, which they felt appeared to attack the LGBTQ community.
The said employees had barged into an online business meeting of the senior executives of Netflix. However, Netflix maintains that its employees have always been encouraged to express their views openly and honestly, and that the said employees’ suspension was not because of their social-media tweets regarding the show.
Terra Field, a software engineer at Netflix feels that the content of the stand-up special in question, The Closer, goes against the trans community. The names of the other two suspended employees has not been made public yet.
Earlier, Jaclyn Moore, an executive producer at Netflix, had declared that she would not work with Netflix as it was profiting from transphobic content.
In an internal memo, however, Ted Sarandos, co-chief executive, Netflix, tried to explain to the employees that Netflix had always been careful not to accept shows or titles that rouse hate or violence. He also explained that when it comes to stand-up comedy, boundaries do tend to get pushed, and not everyone approves of the content. However, the fact remains that a significant chunk of the audience does enjoy it. In fact, Chappelle’s special in 2019 happened to be the most popular stand-up special that even won awards.
Field, however, in her social media posts, maintains that the content of the show “attacks” the trans community. She goes on to list the names of the people who are associated with the trans community or part of it, and have been killed this year.
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