Elon Musk praises Netflix for suggesting employees quit if they don't like its content

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By Carina Murphy

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Elon Musk has praised Netflix for its recent message to its employees.

The billionaire has given a shoutout to the streaming giant for their new company culture guidelines, which states that they "may not be the best place" for employees who disagree with their content.

Musk took to Twitter to commend the new policy, tweeting: "Good move be @netflix".

The update to the company culture guidelines is the first since 2017 and most notably includes the addition of a new section titled "Artistic Expression".

"Not everyone will like—or agree with—everything on our service," the guidelines read, adding: "We let viewers decide what's appropriate for them, versus having Netflix censor specific artists or voices."

The guidelines go on to explain that employees may have to work on titles they "perceive to be harmful", and suggest that if they aren't happy with this they should leave the company behind.

"As employees we support the principle that Netflix offers a diversity of stories, even if we find some titles counter to our own personal values. Depending on your role, you may need to work on titles you perceive to be harmful. If you'd find it hard to support our content breadth, Netflix may not be the best place for you," the guidelines explain.

The new employee policy comes at a moment of crisis for the streaming giant, which has recently experienced a record loss of subscribers. Netflix bosses put the loss of users down to increased competition, password sharing, inflation, and Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine per Insider.

There has also been internal unrest at Netflix, with many employees staging a walkout in October when they refused to removed Dave Chappelle's comedy special - in which he made a series of jokes many believed to be transphobic - from the platform.

Meanwhile, the SpaceX founder and hopeful future Twitter owner Musk had his own views on what was causing Netflix issues, claiming that their content was "unwatchable" because it was too "woke".

"The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable," he tweeted on April 20.

While it wasn't clear exactly which Netflix show had prompted Musk to complain, he did provide some hints in a follow tweet, where he wrote: "Can they please just make sci-fi/fantasy at least *mostly* about sci-fi/fantasy?"

Featured Image Credit: DPA picture alliance / Alamy