Summary
In the age of digital media, social media is a powerful advertising tool for companies. It is something that most of society uses every day. We make a comment or statement, click the Send button, and move on with our day. For most of us, we don’t even lament what was posted. Yet those posts/tweets/X’s/truths/snaps can have real-world consequences. As such, even anime series can find themselves in hot water over tweets. This is why companies verify to hire a team of people to run their social media accounts, to check and double check everything before it goes out.
Still, despite these best efforts, sometimes bad things result from tweets and posts that were posted with the best of intentions. In the case we are about to discuss, a Netflix tweet involvingOne Pieceand its main character, Luffy, was posted in an attempt to have some fun discourse that resulted in the company receiving serious backlash. What was this tweet, and what did people find so offensive about it? Let’s discuss.
The History of Damaging Tweets
A harmful tweet is a message posted on the social media platform Twitter that can cause harm, distress, or negative consequences to individuals, groups, organizations, or society as a whole. Let’s take a detour and remember some of the most notable tweets that have resulted in real-world consequences:
As you can see, posting the wrong thing on Twitter (now known as X) can result in some serious consequences if the wrong thing is said. Sometimes it’s not just what is being said, but the timing of what is being said.Netflixdiscovered that a well-intentioned tweet sent out at the wrong time can result in negative publicity.
Netflix’s One Piece Tweet
To be sure, this isn’t the first time a Netflix tweet has gotten them in hot water. Chances are you remember this little gem from a few years ago:
At the time, this was a seemingly inoffensive tweet, but once Netflix decided to crack down onpassword sharing several years later, users were quick to highlight this tweet as an example that Netflix used to care about users and now just cares about money (full disclosure: Netflix was ALWAYS more concerned about money). In 2023 Netflix launched theirlive action adaptationof the hit animeOne Piece.
Netflix has a billboard in front of their headquarters to advertise new projects. When they post such messages, pictures are taken and those quotes are shared on X. As a way to celebrate the new series, Netflix tweeted this to the world:
On the surface, this should have been a non-issue. It’s just no one running Netflix’s X account (or writing on the billboard) were taking into account the real-world circumstances that were taking place at the time.
Why the Tweet Didn’t Sit Well with the Public
While this tweet was harmless on the surface, the problem was it was posted during the height of the 2023duel WGA & SAG-AFTRA strikes. When the tweet went live, both of the guilds had been on strike for a couple of months with no end in sight. To make matters worse, the two men painted as the big “bad guys” in the dispute were Disney CEO Bob Iger and Netflix CEO Ted Sorandos. Iger made a fool of himself in a CNBC interview, so he was the public enemy of the guilds. Behind the scenes though, Netflix was considered the real sticking point in negotiations.
As the leaders of the streaming wars, they were reported to be the biggest opponents of sharing viewership data and paying residuals based on that data. They ultimately would come to an agreement with the writers and actors, but at the time, Netflix was unwavering in their stance on not paying residuals to either the writers or the actors. So when this tweet went out, the internet was quick to share their true thoughts on it;
As you can see, the vast majority of people used the tweet to tell Netflix that he would pay his writers better (some also felt he would share his password as well). There were other tweets that were immature (and thus we won’t be sharing them here), yet the overall message was clear: pay the writers and let everyone get back to work. Netflix never took the tweet down (nor did they respond to it). However, it is very likely that despite taking it on the chin, the whole situation was embarrassing for the world’s largest streamer. The only thing they have to be happy about is that the situation was embarrassing but NOT career-damaging.
