Netflix account cancellations soared in the days after co-founder and Chairman Reed Hastings endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and donated millions to her presidential campaign, according to a report.
Though the streaming platform usually has the lowest churn – or rate of cancellations – in the industry, its rate nearly tripled in the US after Hastings’ endorsement, according to the researcher Antenna.
Scores of customers in the US canceled their Netflix subscriptions at a rate of 2.8% in July – higher than any other month since February, according to a Bloomberg report.
Subscribers likely axed their accounts en masse because the streaming giant killed its basic plan – which was its lowest-priced ad-free option – in the same month.
Still, cancellations soared unusually high in the five-day period following Hastings’ endorsement, even considering the spike in July, the report said.
“Congrats to Kamala Harris – now it is time to win,” Hastings wrote in a post on X on July 22 after Harris officially became the Democratic nominee.
Then, The Information reported Hastings had donated $7 million to an anti-Trump Republican PAC in support of Harris.
Trump supporters slammed the donation and turned to social media to call for a boycott. Some online users falsely claimed Netflix itself had donated the millions to Harris.
Frustrated subscribers posted photos of their canceled accounts online with the hashtag #CancelNetflix.
Three days after the donation was made public – July 26 – was Netflix’s worst day for cancellations this year, according to Bloomberg.
Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It is unclear what – if any – substantial long-term impact the cancellations will have on Netflix’s business.
But the short-lived Netflix boycott is reminiscent of social media-led campaigns against companies with DEI initiatives.
Conservative activist Robby Starbuck has successfully pressured a number of companies into dropping their DEI practices by calling for his hundreds of thousands of followers to boycott the businesses.
His targets have included companies that rely on significant consumer bases in red states, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, John Deere and Tractor Supply.
Many companies – including those in the entertainment industry – raced to implement diversity initiatives after the murder of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
Netflix made good on its 2020 pledge to move 2% of its cash into Black-owned banks.
In June 2020, Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, donated $120 million to historically black colleges and universities.
But some companies in the industry faced backlash when their initiatives bled into politics. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis clashed with Disney after the company criticized a law prohibiting the discussion of gender identity in classrooms.
Netflix’s skyrocketing cancellation rate is just the latest political casualty to hit an entertainment company.
Hastings – who co-founded Netflix in 1997 and stepped down as CEO in 2023 – has donated billions to philanthropic causes over the years. He has also long donated to Democratic, and some Republican, candidates and PACs.
He has been outspoken about this year’s upcoming election as one of the largest – and one of the first – Democratic donors to call for President Joe Biden to bow out of the race in July.
“Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous,” he then told The New York Times via email.
