After Netflix told these employees to quit, Elon Musk twists the knife

As the Netflix culture guideline gets updated, Elon Musk appears as an unlikely ally. Find out what the Tesla chief said.

The updated Netflix culture guideline, which told its employees to quit if they do not like the content, gets an unlikely backer in Tesla CEO Elon Musk. (AP)

Last week, Netflix updated its culture guideline where it told its employees that if they “find it hard to support” the streaming giant's content, they should consider quitting. This came as a shock for Netflix employees. But it was not long before things took a turn for the worse for Netflix employees as Tesla chief Elon Musk twisted the knife causing further grief. Ever since the announcement was released, the public opinion online has been divided on the issue and Netflix has received criticisms from the LGBTQ community. However, Elon Musk's reaction has made him an unlikely ally of Netflix after he defended and praised the platform for its decision. Read on to find out what the Tesla CEO had to say on the matter.

Netflix Updates its culture guideline

Netflix recently updated its company-culture guidelines for the first time in the last five years. The guidelines, which were last changed in 2017, now include a new section titled "Artistic Expression”. Elaborating on the details of this section, the guidelines read, “Not everyone will like — or agree with — everything on our service. We let viewers decide what's appropriate for them, versus having Netflix censor specific artists or voices”.

Defending the rights of the content creators to express themselves, it added, “As employees we support the principle that Netflix offers a diversity of stories, even if we find some titles counter to our own personal values. Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you'd find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you."

The update in the guidelines comes after multiple Netflix employees were protesting for the removal of stand up comedian Dave Chappelle's special ‘The Closer'. Protesters claimed that the special was homophobic and transphobic.

Elon Musk defends Netflix

On May 15, responding to a tweet about the new policy by Netflix, Elon Musk tweeted, “Good move by @netflix”. This tweet came as a surprise to many, as previously the Tesla chief had called Netflix content “woke mind virus” and blamed it for losing 200K subscribers in the first quarter of the financial year 2022-23.

On April 20, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had tweeted, “The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable”. While it was not clear what he exactly referred to, he agreed with another tweet which complained about lack of originality and trend-chasing behavior of streaming platforms.

Later, in what appeared to be a tongue-in-cheek comment, he added, “Can they please just make sci-fi/fantasy at least *mostly* about sci-fi/fantasy”.