A new development is coming to light as to the controversy surrounding Netflix, its Dave Chapelle comedy special The Closer, and the employees and their supporters who have staged a walkout today due to what they say is hateful rhetoric against trans and LGBTQ+ people in the special.
As Complex reports, it’s Netflix’s word against a former employee in the latest development.
Ex-staffer B. Pagels-Minor reportedly helped organize the walkout today, which occurred less than a week after getting canned. According to Netflix, an employee was let go after leaking confidential information to the public. The data was published on October 13th in a Bloomberg report, saying Netflix spent more than $24 million on The Closer, a higher price tag than even the streaming service’s mega-hit Squid Game.
However, Pagels-Minor, who is also trans, said they did not leak the streaming company’s internal figures to the press, though they admitted sharing sensitive information to co-workers.
“I collected the data, but I did not leak the data,” Pagels-Minor said, adding their former employer did not give them a change to prove their innocence. “It was just like, ‘Hey, you’re the person. You’re gone,’” she said in an interview with NPR.
However, Netflix fired back at Pagels-Minor’s claim in a subsequent interview, saying there was an irreconcilable discrepancy and that the employee then wiped their devices, making any further investigation impossible.
“While we would never normally talk about an investigation like this, these claims are not supported by the facts…This employee admitted sharing confidential information externally from their Netflix email on several occasions. Also, they were the only employee to access detailed, sensitive data on four titles that later appeared in the press,” a Netflix spokesperson told Deadline.
What do you think about the latest Netflix controversy?
Published: Oct 20, 2021 07:38 pm