Elon Musk Blames 'Woke Mind Virus' For Netflix's Drop In Users And Plummeting Stocks Amid Warnings Of Password Sharing Crackdown

April 20th, 2022 - 12:29 PM EDT by Adam Downer

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Elon musk netflix woke mind virus tweet.

It's been a rough quarter for Netflix as the streaming giant reported a shrinkage in subscribers for the first time in its 12-year history recently, leading to a massive plummet in its stock price of around 35 percent.

Despite the Netflix's multiple recent smash-hit shows like Squid Game and Bridgerton, it didn't surprise many that the platform was coming under hard times. Many felt the platform's bloat of cheap, low-quality content damaged its reputation. Meanwhile, its competitors like HBO Max and Disney+ are coming out with hit programming and consumers may have decided to cut Netflix out of their subscriptions for economic reasons.

Billionaire and part-time intellectual Elon Musk offered a different hypothesis to explain Netflix's woes, however — the dreaded "woke mind virus."


Musk did not elaborate on how he felt the "woke mind virus" was ruining Netflix, leaving readers left to guess what Musk meant by his claim. It's possible he was referring to the recent controversy when Netflix's employees staged a walkout over the company's decision to air a Dave Chappelle special that some felt was transphobic.

It could be that Musk feels the platform's original programming is too "woke" for the company's own good, though the content of Netflix's original programming doesn't offer much justification for that line of thinking. The platform's most streamed original programs recently have been enjoyably low-brow reality television shows like Love Is Blind and The Ultimatum, two experiment-driven dating shows that exclusively focus on heterosexual couples and Is It Cake?, a competition show where bakers attempt to make cakes look like objects. On the scripted program side, Netflix has scored a hit with the steamy Victorian romance drama Bridgerton and Inventing Anna, a show about a New York City socialite scammer. Few argue such shows are excessively "woke."

As such, reactions to Musk's tweet were split between those who sagely agreed with the Tesla billionaire and those who wondered what he was talking about.


It's unclear if Netflix will address the problem of the Woke Mind Virus in its upcoming slate of original programming like the real estate reality show Selling Sunset and an adaptation of Marmaduke. More clear is that the company is going to experiment with offering cheaper, ad-supported subscriptions, which has opened its own can of worms.


Amid the drop in stock price, Netflix also warned customers it may crackdown on password sharing soon. According to the company's quarterly report, Netflix estimates more than 30 million U.S. and Canadian households are sharing accounts, while more than 100 million additional households are purportedly using shared passwords worldwide.

"Our relatively high household penetration – when including the large number of households sharing accounts – combined with competition, is creating revenue growth headwinds," Netflix stated in its letter. "Account sharing as a percentage of our paying membership hasn’t changed much over the years, but, coupled with the first factor, means it’s harder to grow membership in many markets — an issue that was obscured by our COVID growth."

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A Concerned Rifleman
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A Concerned Rifleman

To answer the question, the "Woke Mind Virus" in this context is Netflix's tendency to fall back on and promote shows that advertise "diversity" and "representation" for the sake of covering for non-existent writing. While there could certainly be bias among the staff, I think it's more of an issue with Netflix not even trying to filter what goes on its platform, as the business model they adhere to necessitates quantity over everything else.

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