Netflix sees spike in cancelations after founder endorsed Harris for president

Netflix has seen the single worst day for cancelations this year after its co-founder Reed Hastings endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president and revealed that he had donated millions to her campaign.

July already marked the month with the highest rate of users ditching subscriptions with the streaming service in 2024, with a cancelation rate of 2.8 percent. This was due in part to the streaming giant culling its basic tier – the cheapest ad-free plan on offer, costing $11.99 per month – on July 13.

But 10 days later, Netflix saw a five-day surge in users boycotting the platform – an exodus that came after the company’s executive chair threw his support behind Harris, according to Bloomberg.

“Congrats to Kamala Harris – now it is time to win,” Hastings tweeted in the early hours of July 23, two days after Harris announced her presidential campaign.

Later that day, the tech mogul revealed to The Information that he had donated $7m to The Republican Accountability PAC – a staunchly anti-Donald Trump super-political action committee that describes itself as “Republicans and conservatives who hate” what the former president has done to the GOP.

A swarm of furious MAGA supporters took to X that day to post screenshots of their canceled subscriptions.

“Cancelled my Netflix subscription,” one person wrote with another teasing: “I have a feeling you cost Netflix way more than $7 million with this one.”

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A third added: “I think it’s time to boycott Netflix. They’re overcharging Americans anyway.”

Three days later on July 26, Netflix recorded the single worst day of cancelations this year.

It’s not clear whether Hastings’s endorsement of Harris impacted the streaming service beyond the five-day spike of cancellations.

The Independent has contacted Hastings and Netflix for comment.

While Hastings has long been a Democratic donor, splurging more $5.3m – including $1.4m in support of President Joe Biden – in 2020, he hasn’t been vocal about his election views until more recently.

June 3 marked the first time the party mega-donor publicly called for Biden to step off the Democratic ticket during an interview with The New York Times.

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One day later, Hastings shared an article from The Economist titled” “Why Biden must withdraw”.

On July 21, the day Biden abandoned his re-election campaign, the entrepreneur wrote on X that: “Dem delegates need to pick a swing state winner,” to which fellow Silicon Valley stalwart Elon Musk replied: Trump/Vance LFG [let’s f***ing go]!”

Like much of Silicon valley, several of Netflix’s high-profile employees are left-leaning. Its co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, is married to Nicole Avant, a former ambassador under the Obama administration.

In the 2020 election, Netflix employees who donated to one of the major parties sent 98 percent of their political contributions to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets website.

Elon Musk took to X on Sunday evening to slam Netflix for its “lopsided” donations to the Democrats.

He shared a graphic which alleged Netflix employees have donated $4.4m to the party this election cycle, along with the caption: “Donations by Netflix employees could not be more lopsided in favor of the Democratic Party.”

Quiver Quantitative, a stock market data analytics tool which created the graphic, later wrote on X that “most of Netflix’ employee donations come from the co-founder and executive chairman of the company.”