Netflix is calling on the friends in very high places to plug for net neutrality.
The company used the Twitter account of its flagship “House of Cards” series to snidely attack AT&T Frank Underwood-style over comments about the Federal Communications Commission’s recent net neutrality decision.
@ATTPublicPolicy AT&T's lobbyist calling out lobbyists? Attack of candor, indeed.
— House of Cards (@HouseofCards) March 9, 2015
Though President Underwood has yet to tackle the issue in the show, its near half-million Twitter followers include government employees and members of the fourth estate throughout the district, which recently saw the heated battle over the FCC’s proposal to regulate Internet service providers (ISPs) such as AT&T come to a head with a vote in the affirmative last month. (RELATED: FCC Votes In Favor Of Net Neutrality)
The tweet came in response to AT&T’s criticism of recent comments made by Netflix CFO David Wells, which made it appear as if the company was backpedaling on its support for the aggressive new FCC rules to regulate ISPs as public utilities under Title II of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
“Were we pleased it pushed to Title II? Probably not,” Wells said last week, according to Variety. “We were hoping there would be a non-regulated solution.”
“Netflix has spun a lot of tales during this FCC proceeding,” Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs, said in response to the comment. “But it’s awfully hard to believe their CFO would go into a major investor conference and misspeak on an issue supposedly so crucial to their future. More likely he had an attack of candor. At least ’til his company’s lobbyists got hold of him.”
A Netflix spokesperson reportedly told The Hill the tweet “was intended to be light-hearted,” while AT&T spokesman Michael Balmoris remarked that the this message was “at least consistent.”
“Netflix has been channeling Frank Underwood throughout this proceeding,” Balmoris said.