Netflix is tanking

It's about time

Sep 26, 2022

**Originally published on zarnajoshi.com on May 2, 2022**

A grey background with a chart in purple font. At the top in white font on a black background is chart title: “Netflix Q1 subscriber loss”. The chart shows Netflix subscriber numbers from 2017 to 20022 and has no negative number until 2022’s first quarter which shows “-200K”. That part was circled in red by me. At the bottom of the image is a black bar with white font that reads: “Yahoo! finance Netflix’s subscriber loss. Above the black bar is white font on a red background that reads: “ALERT”. — **Screenshot**

Remember when I told you about how, in my informed opinion, Netflix was Hinduphobic, anti-Black racist, transphobic, misogynistic, and they abuse their own workers, all while pretending to care about social justice? And remember how I pointed out Netflix’s disturbingly abusive content, all under the guise of socially just entertainment?

And remember when I told you that Hindus are leading the way with a powerful boycott and that Netflix is in trouble?

Well. This is from April 20 2022:

A picture of a city landscape with highways, trees, and office buildings clearly visible in the foreground and skyscrapers visible on the distant horizon that appears hazy with pollution. In the forefront to the right is a building with “Netflix” emblazoned in red on the side. A caption at the top left of the image reads: “Netflix reports first subscriber loss in a decade.” Subtitles at the bottom center read: “- Netflix reported losing subscribers for the first time.” — **Screenshot**

Netflix reported a 200,000 subscriber loss in the first quarter of 2022. This is their first subscriber loss in 10 years.

They want to blame their losses on increased competition, inflation, and Russia, and will go on and on about it to anyone who’ll listen. Here are 3 reasons why I think their excuses are nonsense:

People don’t go to the competition unless they don’t like three things; your product, your price, and your attitude.
The current inflation is from the USA’s own imperialist capitalist actions in imposing sanctions on countries around the world, which is economic warfare as I have told you over and over again. Have you heard Netflix speaking out about such imperialist capitalist decisions of the US government? Have you heard Netflix protesting economic warfare in the form of sanctions which are always designed to harm the most vulnerable people in any country? No? Why not? If it hurts their business, even if they don’t care about the imperialism, wouldn’t they speak up to defend their business?
Netflix’s “Russia” trouble is entirely self-inflicted: They decided to punish the Russian people for Putin’s actions in Ukraine by suspending service in Russia. This was obviously a good decision because there’s nothing wrong with going after the people of an entire country for what a politician in their government did, right? That’s why all the global south countries should refuse to export their crops to the USA to protest the endless wars of US presidents. Everyone knows that. Netflix has campaigned on that all these years, right? Wait, they haven’t campaigned on that? They haven’t said that other countries should sanction the US and refuse services to the people of the US in order to protest the USA’s endless wars? Hmmmm….

Article headline from TechCrunch with black text on a white background reads: “Netflix shares down more than 20% after losing 200,000 subscribers in first quarter”. Article is dated “April 19 2022”. — **Screenshot**

Netflix had a giant command of the online streaming market for years and now they’re tanking all in the space of a few months. It’s so bad that billionaire investor William Ackman chose to take a $400 million loss on his Netflix bet because he knew that if he stayed any longer he’d lose even more money.

Article headline from Reuters in black font on white background reads: “Ackman gives up on Netflix, taking $400 million loss as shares tumble”. Article is dated “April 20 2022”. — **Screenshot**

Article from Business Insider in black font on white background reads: “Billionaire investor Bill Ackman loses around $400 million as he dumps entire Netflix stake after just 3 months”. Article is dated “April 21 2022”. — **Screenshot**

Despite all Netflix’s excuses, it seems to me that hostile treatment of your own customers is bad business practice. Did they really think that spreading Hinduphobic propaganda was going to help them break into India’s market of 1.3 billion people? Did they really think that trying to divide and conquer the Black and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities was going to work out, completely ignoring that Black 2SLGBTQIA+ people exist? Did they really think that promoting Holocaust jokes was going to endear them to survivors of genocide and Nazis?

Yeah, actually. They did think that. They really did think they could get away with all of that and more. They didn’t count on ordinary people saying: “No, thanks.” They definitely didn’t count on Indigenous brown Hindus leading the way.

Meanwhile, the higher ups at Netflix think that cracking down on people who share passwords is going to help them out of this crisis. Their answer to a crisis caused by their hostile treatment of their own customers is more hostile treatment of their customers. According to their calculations, “100 million people” are using borrowed passwords. I wonder how Netflix are calculating that considering how many people use VPNs and tracking locations would be difficult in such a scenario.

Black text on a white background. Title reads: “What is Netflix doing about password sharing?” Below that reads: “It does appear that a crackdown is coming. Netflix has already tested ways to curb password sharing in some Latin American markets, such as testing surcharges for accounts used at addresses not associated with the main account holder. These add-ons are in the $2-$3 a month range, and will be triggered when people try using the Netflix account associated with another address.” — **Screenshot**

It sounds like, at least from this report above, that they won’t even bother to let you know before charging you extra money for sharing your password with someone at a different address. In that scenario, what happens when someone uses Netflix while traveling away from their home? Does this mean they’ll be forced to pay more for using their own subscription? Or will they be forced to prove to Netflix their own identity? Netflix appears to be going in the direction of sneaking extra charges and telling their customers they don’t trust them. Obviously, not at all hostile.

There are also people who don’t like Netflix but keep their subscription because their poor friends get to access certain shows there. If those people are no longer allowed to share their passwords with their poor friends, why would they stay with a streaming service that is hostile to them?

Notice how they tested these hostile changes on brown people first. If you didn’t spot that, I’ll show you again:

Same quote as the quote above. The words “tested” and “in some Latin American markets” are underlined in red by me. — **Screenshot**

So they’ve been adding extra charges to brown and Black people, all on the sly, while presenting nauseating shows that performatively uplift brown and Black tokens. Just to be really clear about this, Netflix uses these tokens to score anti-racist points in the global north social justice movement while testing hostile policies on Black and brown populations in the global south. This means they’re extracting extra money out of poor people with hostile business practices.

One such token Netflix keeps in their back pocket is Meghan Markle, who is herself a capitalist tool. I have pointed out previously how problematic and extractive she and her husband Harry are. If you missed my analysis of that then you can read that right here. Netflix was quick to take advantage of this extractive power couple by making a lucrative deal with token Meghan and her parasitic royal husband.

Article headline in black font on a white background reads: “Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have signed a deal with Netflix and started their own production company”. Below headline reads the date: Sept 2, 2020". Below date shows a color picture of Harry and Meghan standing outside before a shiny dark car. Harry is wearing a black tuxedo and white shirt. Meghan is wearing a black evening gown. Close behind them stands a white woman who is partially obscured by Meghan. — **Screenshot**

Netflix, however, is now in so much financial trouble that they can no longer afford token Meghan’s animated project about inspiring girls, even though they’ll keep working with Harry on his project supporting veterans who have killed brown and Black people in the global south. Because that’s not racist and patriarchal and imperialist at all, is it?

Article headline from BBC in black font on white background reads: “Netflix cancels Meghan Markle’s animated series Pearl”. Below in grey font is date: “Sun, May 1 2022”. — **Screenshot**

Black font on a white background showing two paragraphs. First paragraph reads: “Netflix did, however, confirm that it will continue to work on a number of projects with Archewell Productions, including a documentary series called Heart of Invictus.” Second paragraph reads: “The series will focus on athletes competing in the Invictus Games for injured veterans, an event founded by Prince Harry, in The Hague in 2022.” — **Screenshot**

Anyone who continues to insist that Netflix cares about social justice is a willing dupe.

Don’t count Netflix out yet though, by the way. These white imperialist capitalists are dangerous people. They’re capable of causing a lot of pain to Black and brown and poor people, trying every tactic they can to keep their money.

Article headline from Business Insider in black font on white background reads: “Netflix is in crisis. Hollywood insiders say it could turn into a huge opportunity or leave executives ‘more scared and paralyzed than they already were.’” Below article is dated: “Sat, April 30, 2022.” — **Screenshot**

We’re at a precipice.

This is why more people are joining the boycott. Those people should let Netflix know why they joined the boycott too. They should let them know that they won’t tolerate Hinduphobia, racism, imperialism, misogyny, worker abuses, transphobia, and on and on. They should let Netflix know that they don’t support hostile business practices.

I’m glad to be boycotting Netflix. I’m not stopping for anything.

Anyone want to chill with me…without Netflix? I’ll be down.