Accelerated Defection from Trump Camp Following Harris' Public Endorsement
Reed Hastings, co-founder and chairman of Netflix, publicly endorsed U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, prompting supporters of Trump to launch a campaign to cancel Netflix subscriptions.
On the 30th (local time), Bloomberg reported that the Netflix cancellation rate in the U.S. reached 2.8% in July, the highest since February this year. Bloomberg analyzed that "the main reason for the subscriber churn in July was Netflix discontinuing the Basic plan, which was the cheapest plan without ads," but also noted that "the cancellation rate unusually surged during the five days following Hastings' endorsement of Harris."
Earlier, on July 22, Hastings posted on X (formerly Twitter), "Congratulations to Kamala Harris. Now is the time to win," publicly endorsing Vice President Harris. The next day, IT media outlet The Information reported that Hastings donated $7 million (about 9.2 billion KRW) to a Harris-supporting Super PAC (special political action committee).
In response to Hastings' actions, supporters of Republican presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump launched a campaign urging people to stop using Netflix. Some posted photos certifying their subscription cancellations with the hashtag '#CancelNetflix.' Foreign media added that July 26, three days after the report of Hastings' donation, was the day with the highest number of Netflix cancellations this year. Netflix declined to comment on the matter, and Hastings reportedly did not respond either.
Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-CEO, is married to Nicole Avant, who served as ambassador to the Bahamas during the Obama administration, and has long been actively involved in political activities supporting the Democratic Party. Foreign media emphasized that the impact of Netflix's top executives' political stances on the company's business will be confirmed in the third-quarter earnings report scheduled for mid-October.
Meanwhile, Netflix's stock price showed a downward trend in July but resumed an upward curve from August. It has risen about 50% so far this year as of this date.
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