“‘You may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful’”
That was part of a corporate statement from Netflix NFLX, +1.20% in its newly created “artistic expression” section of the company’s workplace culture guidelines, indicating that employees may have to work on or alongside content they think is harmful.
“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,” the culture document states. “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.”
Netflix updated this document on May 12, representing the first major update to the document since 2017, a Netflix spokesperson informed MarketWatch.
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Previous versions of Netflix culture document did not have an “artistic expression” section and had little to no mention of how employees should or could address feelings about content that Netflix creates.
The new section in its entirety on Netflix’s website can be found below.
Netflix.com
Last year, Netflix faced some criticism from transgender people over comments made by comedian Dave Chappelle on his Netflix special The Closer. The frustration among some with Chappelle’s special boiled over and eventually led to a Netflix employee walkout.
“We value our trans colleagues and allies, and understand the deep hurt that’s been caused,” a Netflix spokesperson said at the time regarding the walkout. “We respect the decision of any employee who chooses to walk out, and recognize we have much more work to do both within Netflix and in our content.”
The news comes as Netflix reported a loss of 200,000 subscribers during its latest earnings report, and suffered a subsequent 35% loss the for company’s stock, the biggest drop since 2004. Some analysts believe Netflix needs to move beyond binge watching in order to attract new customers.
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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings partially blamed password sharing as a cause for lack of new subscriber growth, claiming that 100 million people are using shared login information for the streaming service. Netflix says it will soon be cracking down on password sharing, and such restrictions, as well as a new ad-supported tier, could come by the end of 2022.
Tesla TSLA, -3.84% CEO Elon Musk, a frequent critic of Netflix, tweeted his support for the move.
Netflix is down 62.51% over the past 12 months, compared with a 4.3% drop for the S&P 500 SPX, -0.56% Index over that same period.