Los Angeles — Netflix said Friday that it fired an employee for divulging confidential financial information about what it paid for Dave Chappelle's comedy special The Closer, which some condemned as transphobic.
The employee who wasn t named, gave confidential, sensitive information to other company associates, a Netflix statement said.
We understand this employee may have been hurt to Netflix, but maintaining a culture of trust and transparency is core to our company, the statement said.
The article also mentioned the lower budgets for a 2019 Chapelle Special, a Bo Burnham Special and the nine-episode hit Squid Game. Netflix said a review of its internal access logs shared this information externally to a single person, who admitted that they downloaded and shared sensitive company information internally. The Closer, aired first on Oct. 1 and had gained at least 10 million views. However, Chapelle's remarks about the LGBTQ community raised protests in Netflix and transgender activists.
The USA-based news agency GLAAD said anti-LGBTQ content violates Netflix's policy of blocking programs that incite hate or violence.
However, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told managers in an internal memo that the show doesn t cross the line of hate and will remain on the streaming service.
Several Netflix employees, including a software engineer who identified as transgender, had criticized the special. Transgender employees and their co-workers are being urged to stage a walkout in protest next Wednesday.
Our leadership has shown us that they don't uphold the values for which we are held, said a news conference on a public company Slack channel, The Los Angeles Times reported.