Was Elon Musk talking about LGBT and leftist agendas that "make Netflix unwatchable" and the "green-haired freak with the ban button"?

Recently, a phrase appeared on social networks that Musk allegedly said. According to it, the head of Tesla criticized the “leftist agenda”, which makes it impossible to watch modern TV series and films and play video games. We have verified the accuracy of this quote.

The phrase, allegedly uttered by Elon Musk, went viral on VKontakte at the end of April. Here is the most common version: “LGBTQ and other leftist agendas that influence people's minds make Netflix unwatchable. This problem extends to all cinema, TV series, and video games in general. The entire industry is infected with such trash trends for fear of offending some green-haired freak with a ban button."

For example, in the Netflix community there is a post with this quote received over 333,000 views and almost 10,000 likes. The publication is also posted in groups LF | Lost (over 105,000 views and 2,100 likes), ᴘ n ᴇ ɴ ᴏ ᴍ ᴇ ɴ ᴀ (over 30,000 views and 650 likes), «LostFilm.News | TV series news 24/7" (almost 22,000 views and 300 likes) and Live Games (over 2500 views and 30 likes). And in public MADS (145,000 views, 2,500 likes) and "Your cozy room" (61,000 views, 1,800 likes) they also added that the mentioned green-haired freak is gay and that over the last month (that is, April), 300,000 people have already canceled their Netflix subscriptions. Quote in the Movie Land Telegram channel collected almost 28,000 views.

According to many comments under these posts, some users did not believe that this quote came from Musk. Someone even wrote that they couldn’t find it on the billionaire’s Twitter, where he often speaks out on various topics. So did Musk say something like that?

Let's start with the fact that on April 19, data about Netflix's quarterly report appeared in the media. According to CNBC, the streaming service reported a total loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first three months of 2022. This is the first decline in paid subscriptions in more than a decade - Netflix last lost subscribers in October 2011. Moreover, according to the company’s forecast, in the second (current) quarter expected total outflow of another 2 million paid subscriptions. As a result, the audience with paid accounts will decrease from 221.64 million to 219.64 million people.

“Our revenue growth has slowed significantly,” wrote company in a letter to its shareholders. “Streaming is outperforming linear broadcasting, which is in line with our forecasts, and Netflix projects are very popular around the world. However, our relatively wide distribution among households, coupled with the large number of households with shared accounts, combines with competition to create barriers to income growth.”

Previously Netflix reported shareholders that in the first quarter of 2022 the total increase in paid subscriptions will be 2.5 million. During the same period a year ago, the service added almost 4 million subscribers. The company's report noted that the overall losses were affected by the suspension of the service in Russia. As a result, approximately 700,000 subscriptions were canceled; without this, the net increase for the quarter would have been 500,000 subscriptions.

In addition to the above-mentioned reasons, including the loss of the Russian segment and the distribution of passwords to accounts, the company cited high competition with new streaming services and rising inflation. In addition, subscription prices have increased in some regions. At the same time, Netflix has already is considering A cheaper subscription option that includes viewing ads. The company also added that significant successes during the active spread of COVID-19 in 2020 could have led to stagnation.

After the report was released, Netflix shares fell in price by a couple of tens of percent, about which wrote Slashdot Twitter account. Elon Musk decided to express his opinion on the situation from his page commented this news: “The Voke Brain Virus Makes Netflix Unwatchable.” The term “woke” (translated into Russian as “woke up”) stands for increased attention to issues of racial, gender and social equality. So, with a stretch, “vouk virus” can also be translated as “agenda virus,” but it is not entirely clear what kind of agenda Musk had in mind; he did not specifically mention LGBT people there. However, we note that in March he was in one tweet joked immediately about Russians, Ukrainians, Netflix, transgender people and black people.

After this user Pranay Pathhole wrotethat “the voke virus is the greatest threat to civilization,” and Musk agreed with this statement.

And the author of the phrase about the green-haired freak is a person under the nickname Niche Gamer. He wrote the following: “This doesn’t just apply to Netflix. All cinema, video games, television - all of this is infected with newfangled garbage voc trends for fear of offending the green-haired freak with the ban button. There's nothing original anymore, except for content from countries like Japan or Korea, which is ironic." Head of Tesla agreed and with these words. And later added: "Can we please just make sci-fi/fantasy at least "mostly" about sci-fi/fantasy?"

So, in general, a kind of Frankenstein’s monster is walking around the Internet, and not a quote from Musk. The words he actually said were distorted, and the billionaire was also credited with phrases that he did not write, but with which he agreed, and sometimes they were also changed.

Cover photo: @elonmusk

Half-truth

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