Netflix has fired an employee on charges of having disclosed confidential information on Dave Chappelle’s comic special ‘The Closer’, which for days has been at the center of controversy also within the streaming service for some of Chappelle’s jokes judged to be transphobic. On the show, the US comedian makes a number of comments that have been found offensive even by critics, such as when he ** likened ** the genitals of trans women to vegetarian substitutes for meat products. Netflix, in a statement released by Forbes, explained that the employee was turned away for sharing “confidential and commercially sensitive information outside the company,” which goes against company policies, and said the employee may be was “moved” by feelings of “disappointment and pain” towards the streaming service.
The employee is accused, according to sources cited by ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ and ‘Variety’, of revealing sensitive information about The Closer to Bloomberg, including the cost of the special ($ 24.1 million, reportedly) and the the fact that several Netflix employees had raised concerns even before the show’s release. After the release on the platform, some employees publicly criticized the special and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos who defended the product by calling for “creative freedom”.
Netflix had already suspended three employees on Monday following the controversy over ‘The Closer’. The three were later reinstated and Netflix denied they were suspended for speaking out publicly against ‘The Closer’. But in the wake of the controversy, Netflix’s trans employees and their supporters decided to organize a strike at the company to protest The Closer on October 20. According to Variety, one of the three suspended employees was senior IT engineer Terra Field, who identifies as trans and whose extensive Twitter commentary on the special went viral last week.
According to Netflix sources cited by the American press, however, it would not have been the social comments in which Field spoke of the harmful effects of certain audiovisual content on trans people, and on trans women of color in particular, to cause the suspension, but the fact that the three employees they had come to a top meeting without being invited.