Netflix has reportedly terminated an employee who was organizing an Oct. 20 walkout in protest of Dave Chappelle’s latest special “The Closer.”
The company reportedly accused the employee of leaking the data on how much it cost Netflix to produce Chapelle’s special and the show’s reach to Bloomberg, The Verge reported.
Bloomberg’s Wednesday report cited “a person familiar with metrics,” noting that Netflix had received over 1,000 messages from people who complained about the show’s transphobic sentiments.
Breaking: Netflix has fired the organizer of the trans employee walkout on suspicion of leaking internal metrics to the press.
The employee, who is Black and currently pregnant, spoke out about the leaks internally, with fears they might hurt the walkout movement. https://t.co/z8YP9WPFep
— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) October 15, 2021
The fired employee wished not to disclose their name over the fears of online harassment and was only described as “Black and currently pregnant.” (RELATED: REPORT: Netflix Says Chappelle’s Show ‘The Closer’ Will Not Be Taken Off Site Following Backlash Over LGBTQ Comments)
“All these white people are going around talking to the press and speaking publicly on Twitter and the only person who gets fired is the Black person who was quiet the entire time,” Netflix’s former employee said of the firing, according to The Verge. “That’s absurd, and just further shows that Black trans people are the ones being targeted in this conversation.”
A senior engineer at Netflix, who is white and transgender, accused Chappelle of attacking “the very validity of transness” in an Oct. 7 tweet.
I work at @netflix. Yesterday we launched another Chappelle special where he attacks the trans community, and the very validity of transness – all while trying to pit us against other marginalized groups. You’re going to hear a lot of talk about “offense”.
We are not offended 🧵
— Terra Field (@RainofTerra) October 7, 2021
The tweet’s author was then suspended for an attempt to attend a director-level meeting to which the person wasn’t invited. However, the company reinstated the engineer a few days later, The Verge reported.