The Twitter account @Most is the self-described “home of Netflix’s LGBTQ+ storytelling.” Peppy and incessant, with a companion account on Instagram, @Most is tasked with promoting the queer (or tacitly queer) programming that can be found on the streaming platform, usually through the tried-and-true vehicle of the closed-captioned screen grab (a still from “Glee,” say, during a rendition of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl”). Created in 2019, @Most is one of several special-interest Netflix accounts. @NetflixGeeked promotes the platform’s sci-fi/fantasy and otherwise “genre entertainment.” @contodonetflix is for Spanish-language and Latinx content, and @strongblacklead is for “for the culture” (Black culture, that is). Where the main Netflix account tends toward a drier, more adult enthusiasm in promoting the platform’s sprawling catalogue, the niche accounts adopt the familiar vernacular of the Internet (“friendly reminder,” “queen,” “good morning,” “happy spooky szn”). On Wednesday, October 13th, many of the accounts were going about their usual business, but @Most had fallen into silence. “sorry we haven’t been posting, this week fucking sucks,” the account tweeted.
It was no secret why. At the beginning of October, Netflix had released “The Closer,” a new hour-and-change comedy special from Dave Chappelle, his sixth under a deal he had signed with the streaming service, in 2016. The earlier specials are principally remembered for their odd preoccupation with trans and queer identities. In “The Closer,” Chappelle continues in the same vein—“Gender is a fact” and “I’m team TERF” are two phrases that he says at one point—and also goes meta about the ire his work has elicited. (Trans people “want me dead,” he says.) The least imaginative material of Chappelle’s to date—and his last special “for a minute,” he claims—“The Closer” may have hardly nudged the dial if not for the stir it caused at Netflix internally. The day after the special went online, Jaclyn Moore, the showrunner of “Dear White People,” announced on Twitter that she was “done” working with the platform “as long as they continue to put out and profit from blatantly and dangerously transphobic content.” Five days after that, The Verge reported that Netflix had suspended three employees, one of whom had criticized the company’s choice to release the special, after they’d crashed a meeting that was intended for director-level management. (They were reinstated shortly after the story broke.) The company’s trans* employee resource group organized a virtual walkout, and soon enough the leader of that group was fired—Netflix said that the cause was data leaks, including records, published on Bloomberg on October 13th, revealing, among other financial details, the high price the company had paid for “The Closer.” (The employee, B. Pagels-Minor, identified themself on Tuesday and denied leaking to the press.) On the day of the demonstration, after almost a week of inactivity, @Most tweeted, “brb walking out.”
Sourse: newyorker.com
