Traffic to Netflix’s United States cancellations page spiked 187% after the release of “Cuties,” according to company tracking apps and website usage.
Third-party data shows that U.S. Netflix subscribers may have canceled their Netflix accounts over “Cuties,” Business Insider reported Wednesday, citing data from the data tracking company SimilarWeb. The data shows a surge in traffic to Netflix’s U.S. cancelation-confirmation page following the Sept. 9 “Cuties” release.
The page shows when users have successfully canceled a subscription, Business Insider reported.
Netflix’s cancelation-confirmation page had over 35,000 visits on Sept. 10, spiking 187% from the day before, according to the publication. The page had almost 42,000 visits on Sept. 12, according to Business Insider.
“The numbers are so unusually high,” Ariane Turley, lead media-industry consultant for SimilarWeb, told Business Insider. “I think it’s driven specifically by the movie ‘Cuties.’ Otherwise you’d expect to see other peaks.”
WATCH:
News of the spike in visits to Netflix’s cancelation page comes after Netflix saw unprecedented growth in subscriptions during the coronavirus pandemic as lockdowns forced people to stay indoors.
“Cuties” sparked debate on social media over its depictions of little girls and suggestive dancing. Director Maïmouna Doucouré said in an interview with Deadline that she hoped “Cuties” would “make a big change in this world that hypersexualizes children.”
“I really put my heart into this film,” Doucouré told Deadline. “It’s actually my personal story as well as the story of many children who have to navigate between a liberal Western culture and a conservative culture at home.”
“Hopefully they will understand that we’re actually on the same side of this battle,” she said of critics ahead of the film’s release.
Meanwhile, multiple Republican lawmakers have called for the Department of Justice to take action against the movie.
“As a father of young daughters, I find it sickening,” Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks told the Daily Caller. “Not only is this movie fodder for pedophiles, it encourages very young girls to defy their parents’ wishes and share pornographic images of themselves with strangers.”
A review of the movie by the Daily Caller News Foundation found that “Cuties” not only includes many close up shots of little girls’ crotches and buttocks, but also shows the children viewing pornography and discussing sexual acts. Additionally, it shows one girl photographing her genitalia, among other suggestive scenes.
“Our culture has come a long way in recent years, recognizing the power of television, movies and magazines to affect young girls,” he added.
Netflix declined to comment to the DCNF.
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This article was republished with permission from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Mary Margaret Olohan
Mary Margaret Olohan is a reporter for The Daily Signal.
