Elon Musk attacks Netflix and says ‘woke virus’ to blame for drop in subscribers

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. One user, responding to Mr Musk’s original reply, agreed with the tycoon and said: “Woke mind virus is the biggest threat to the civilization,” to which the billionaire responded: “Yes.” Another commenter, under the Twitter handle @nichegamer, responded to the SpaceX founder’s tweet and agreed with him that Netflix had jumped on the so-called “woke garbage” train, but that more broadly the entire entertainment industry wasn’t much better. Movies in general, videogames, tv, it’s all infested with current year trend woke garbage for fear offending green haired freak next to the ban button,” the user wrote, to which Mr Musk replied with a curt: “True”, before adding the request: “Can they please just make sci-fi/fantasy at least *mostly* about sci-fi/fantasy?” Mr Musk, who is in the midst of a separate digital media duel with Twitter, a company he offered to buy for $43bn which later forced the social media platform to adopt a “poison pill” to protect itself from hostile takeover, began receiving a flood of support in the comments to attempt the same tactic with Netflix. “You gonna buy Netflix too?” wrote one user, while another, who seemed to align with Mr Musk’s topmost complaint of the server, wrote: “Elon buy netflix next plz, woke nonsense is ruining so many good TV Shows and movies.” Netflix, by their own admission in their quarterly filings, cited the growing presence of streaming services being offered by traditional entertainment companies, the war in Ukraine, and the ongoing problem of password sharing among households as the main contributors to the company’s poor performance in the most recent quarter and loss of subscribers. After that report was released, however, co-CEO and chief content officer Ted Sarandos wrote in a blog post that the streaming company had created a $100m creative fund to help offset these imbalances, writing: “We will invest USD $100m over the next five years in a combination of external organisations with a strong track record of setting underrepresented communities up for success in the TV and film industries, as well as bespoke Netflix programs that will help us to identify, train and provide job placement for up-and-coming talent globally.” The company’s top bosses also announced in their quarterly report that it is planning to experiment with the introduction of ads on the server.