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The test run of Netflix’s password crackdown isn’t going well

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Netflix
Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

Everyone get your tiny violins ready, we have some bad news for Netflix that we feel really, really bad about. Really. We feel sooo bad for Netflix. We’re holding back tears over here, screaming to the heavens about how Netflix doesn’t deserve to be punished and how too many bad things happen to the perfectly nice streaming services that never do anything wrong. Not ever!

But yeah, the bad news: The test run of Netflix’s new system for cracking down on people who are sharing their password, currently happening in Costa Rica, Chile, and Peru, is not going well. Super sad, right?! Apparently, the core issue is one of messaging, with Netflix charging people the equivalent of $2 or $3 extra to share their account with anyone outside of their “household,” but the exact definition of “household” seems… predictably vague and limiting.

Apparently, the official Netflix stance is that a household is “exclusively people a subscriber lives with” and not a subscriber’s immediate family. This comes from Rest Of World, which says that the National Institute For The Defense Of Free Competition And The Protection Of Intellectual Property believes this could be taken as “a way of discriminating against users arbitrarily.” Basically, the idea seems to be that a Netflix account would be tied to a physical location, which just sets up a lot of questions that Netflix doesn’t seem to have solved—like what if you move, or you’re on vacation, or your child goes off to school?

Rest Of World spoke to “more than a dozen” Netflix subscribers in Peru who said that they were confused about the new rules and that Netflix wasn’t even enforcing them, with an anonymous customer service rep saying they were told that, if a customer calls and complains, they should be given a special verification code that will let them use their account in multiple locations. So even Netflix doesn’t seem particularly concerned with sticking to this system.

The downside is that these all seem like solvable problems, or—if you want to be cynical—problems that Netflix could just ignore. Limiting an account to a physical location is only a problem if you think Netflix gives a shit about screwing over customers. Seeing as how we’re even talking about an anti-sharing crackdown in the first place, it seems pretty obvious just how much Netflix cares.

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Entertainment

Netflix hits delete on Archive 81

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Archive 81
Photo: Netflix

Another week, another dead show at Netflix—your one-stop streaming shop for television programs you probably shouldn’t get too attached to. This time, the Streaming Reaper has come for found-footage horror series Archive 81, which Deadline reports the streamer has declined to pick up for a second season.

That’s both a bummer, and a little bit of a surprise—or as much of one as Netflix pulling the plug on a show can be, these days. After all, Archive 81 not only drew critical praise, it also reportedly did pretty well for the service, breaking into the company’s Top 10 for ratings for original programming.

For the unfamiliar, Archive 81 starred Mamoudou Athie as an archivist asked to restore some old video footage, and Dina Shihabi as the woman who filmed it, as she attempted to investigate the strangeness surrounding an apartment building. Things swiftly get spooky, in ways that paid homage to horror classics like Rosemary’s Baby, The Ring, and more.

Series creator Rebecca Sonnenshine—who adapted Archive 81 from an existing podcast by Daniel Powell and Marc Sollinger—confirmed the news on Twitter today, reporting that she was “surprised and disappointed we won’t be doing another season,” briefly hinting at some of the plotlines the show might have followed if it had picked up from its first-season cliffhanger.

For what it’s worth, we were fans of Archive 81, which often managed to transcend the base homages it was built from. In her review of the show’s first (now only) season, Saloni Gajjar writes,

Even as it goes through an assortment of supernatural concepts, the show remains interesting mainly due to its exploration of intergenerational trauma. The sentimental familial hook is the through line for each character, past and present. Dan, Melody, Virgil, and almost every other supporting player’s motivations are traced back to grief over the loss of loved ones. Archive 81 just manages to connect their suffering in a slow-burning yet rewarding way.

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Technology

Deus Ex / System Shock Creator Thinks NFTs Are A Bad Idea

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Photo: Will Ireland / PSM3 Magazine (Getty Images)

Remember NFTs? Y’know, those weird digital receipts vaguely attached to terrible-looking images of monkeys and apes that people have spent millions of dollars on over the last year or so. Well, while it seems many have moved on, Warren Spector is here to remind us all that they are still very ridiculous and a complete waste of time. To that I say: Thank you.

Spector, the co-creator and designer behind plenty of beloved PC games including Deus Ex, recently sat down and talked to VentureBeat about his career and future. During that interview, he was asked about NFTs and the blockchain. And he didn’t really mince words about how he felt, telling the outlet that the entire concept was just “ridiculous.”

“Here’s where I’m going to get in trouble,” Spector told VentureBeat. “I’m literally going to have people giving me hell about what I’m about to say, but I really don’t think I care. NFTs are ridiculous.”

He continued, explaining that he didn’t understand why anybody would want to “climb on that bandwagon.” He also said the idea of people owning virtual goods that can be unlimitedly and instantly reproduced was a bad idea, questioning who would think otherwise.

“So NFTs, I have no interest,” summarized Spector.

Read More: NFTs Are ‘A Scam’, Says Indie Marketplace Itch.io

When it comes to the idea of a digital, all-encompassing metaverse involving virtual reality and the internet, Spector wasn’t as quick to count it out or call it a bad idea. However, he said that the concept just doesn’t appeal to him, adding that he ditched social media a few years ago and that the metaverse seems like more of that. Though he did admit the metaverse may one day happen, especially as big companies like Facebook pour buckets of money into it. But it will be a long time from now before it is fully established, something Spector is thankful about.

“The metaverse, sure, maybe someday,” Spector said. “But honestly, it’s going to be long after I’m gone. I’m happy about that. I like living in the real world.”

If you want to read more about Spector’s thoughts on the metaverse and his future game, check out the full VentureBeat interview.

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Entertainment

Netflix launches new Top 10 tracker website

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Red Notice
Photo: Netflix

We’ve criticized the way Netflix handles viewership data in the past, pointing out that some of the platform’s claims about the popularity of certain titles doesn’t make sense or that all of the numbers are questionable given the fact that Netflix counts watching a few minutes of a thing as watching the whole thing. Lately, though, Netflix has tried to offer more context for how it determines that information in hopes of appeasing skeptics.

Now, Netflix has presented its most explicit attempt yet to showcase a legitimate ranking of its most popular shows and movies, all through a surprisingly slick and seemingly data-driven website with some easily digestible streaming statistics. The website, Top10 On Netflix, features running lists of the most popular movies, the most popular TV shows, and the most popular non-English movies and TV shows.

It even lists which countries include a particular movie/show in their respective top 10s, allows you to bring up lists specifically for other countries (which often include things that aren’t on American Netflix), tracks how long movies/TV shows have been in the top 10, and (at least on the global chart), has archived data going back to previous weeks, and allows you to see how many hours have been spent watching something—so even if it’s just a couple of minutes per person, it could still mean that a lot of people watched those minutes.

The whole thing is still clearly a marketing tool, since the data is coming from Netflix and therefore represents information that Netflix wants you to see, but it is at least interesting to see this kind of transparency from the company. Yes, it’s good for Netflix to be able to say “look how popular Red Notice is” after Red Notice comes out, but everything that’s not on this list is presumably less popular than the things that are. You’d never catch Disney, for example, saying that any one thing on Disney+ is less popular than any other thing.

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Technology

Bungie Warns Destiny 2 Infinite Orbs Glitch Will Get You Banned

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Gif: Bungie / JB3 / Kotaku

Destiny 2 has an easy to pull-off trick called the min/max glitch on PC that gives players infinite orbs and a host of other advantages that break a lot of the game’s big activities. Bungie confirmed over the weekend that it’s working on a fix, but in the meantime the developer is warning players will be “met with escalating restrictions” if they keep attempting it.

The glitch was apparently first discovered a group of players earlier this year, but over the weekend one member, a player who goes by JB3, went rogue and uploaded a video to YouTube against their wishes explaining how to pull off the relatively simple but devastating exploit. “DMG won’t respond to my DM’s so I figured I’d make this tutorial,” JB3 wrote.

But another member of the group, ghoustmiller, claimed on Twitter that JB3 had posted the tutorial as retaliation for Bungie banning them after using the glitch in a PVP match. “This is glitch is broken and powerful,” wrote ghoustmiller. “Do not use this; For the sake of your account and do not spread this traitor’s word.”

As a result, the min/max glitch is now out in the wild. It revolves around playing Destiny 2 in windowed mode on PC and holding your cursor over the minimize screen icon in the top right corner. Players have to hold it for at least five seconds, release it, and then hold it again to initiate some framerate issues that appear to trigger the glitch. “That’s it,” writes JB3.

Doing so right before popping a Titan’s Bubble or Warlock’s Well of Radiance will spawn a “shit-ton” of orbs, while doing the min/max trick right before other things in the game will extend countdown timers. For example, players can use it during the Vault of Glass raid’s final boss battle to make Atheon vulnerable for much longer so players can kill him in a single damage phase. The glitch can also be used to lag around in PVP, JB3 writes, messing up things for other players.

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That’s why Bungie community manager dmg04 took to Twitter over the weekend shortly after the video went live to warn players against attempting the min/max glitch themselves. He announced that a fix is on the way but won’t arrive until a December update. In the meantime, a “rutabaga” error has been deployed to try and disconnect any players who may be trying the exploit.

“If players error out of the game numerous times, they can be met with escalating restrictions,” wrote dmg04. “So, aside from recommending you don’t negatively impact the experience of others by reproducing this issue, I also recommend not ruining your own.”

Bungie has been combating a number of other glitches recently, including ongoing problems with its Exotic fusion rifle Telesto, which was taken offline yes again earlier this month following infinite orb spawn problems. The studio also reported a recent uptick in Rutabaga errors, possibly because some players decided to ignore Bungie’s advice.



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Entertainment

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos Says He ‘Screwed Up’ Chappelle Response

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Photo: LIONEL BONAVENTURE / Contributor (Getty Images)

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos is walking back his repeated defenses of Dave Chappelle’s new standup special, “The Closer,” admitting that he “screwed up” internal communications just hours before employees were set to stage a virtual walkout.

In separate interviews with Variety and Deadline on Tuesday, Sarandos admitted that Netflix’s recent moves to curtail employee backlash over the special—including temporarily suspending three employees for crashing an executive-level meeting, firing a pregnant organizer, and doubling down on claims that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm”—had maybe not been the savviest way to handle a burgeoning crisis at the company.

“I had a group of employees who were definitely feeling pain and hurt from a decision we made. And I think that needs to be acknowledged upfront before you get into the nuts and bolts of anything,” Sarandos told Variety. “I didn’t do that. That was uncharacteristic for me, and it was moving fast and we were trying to answer some really specific questions that were floating.”

Sarandos also reversed course on prior statements about the impact of the platform’s storytelling, admitting that “of course storytelling has an impact on the real world — sometimes positive and sometimes negative.”

“That is why I work here, that content actually can make the world a better place through our storytelling, through onscreen representation and all those things,” Sarandos told Deadline. “So it was a gross simplification.”

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In the wake of a fiery public outcry over perceived transphobia embedded within Chappelle’s special, Netflix’s trans employee resource group had swiftly mobilized to coordinate a work stoppage, and had also presented management with a list of demands that included getting the company to acknowledge that transphobic content causes harm. Other demands included the hiring of multiple trans creators to make both scripted and unscripted programs, and significantly stepped up investments in trans and non-binary talent “comparable to our total investment in transphobic content.”

On October 17, Bloomberg reported that Netflix paid Chappelle $24.1 million for “The Closer”—a staggering sum, even by the platform’s deep-pocketed standards. That number came in spite of the fact that, according to internal data leaked to Bloomberg, Chappelle’s previous special, 2019’s Sticks & Stones, had achieved an “impact value” of $19.4 million—meaning it cost more than the value it generated. The disclosures also revealed that the 2019 special had scored a 0.8 on the company’s “efficiency,” scale, which evaluates the streamer’s programming in terms of cost and reach (a 1 is considered a break-even score is ).

Those data points had been significant because they constituted a rare leak for Netflix—a company that prides itself on its internal transparency, but which expressly forbids employees from sharing the information it supplies them with. Netflix later confirmed that the pregnant employee that was fired—a member and key organizer of the trans employee resource group—had been terminated on suspicion of leaking the information to Bloomberg.

Ahead of the planned walkout—framed by trans employees and allies as a “day of rest”—Netflix issued a statement “apologizing” for the harm it caused and owning up to the existence of blind spots within the company.

“We value our trans colleagues and allies, and understand the deep hurt that’s been caused. We respect the decision of any employee who chooses to walk out, and recognize we have much more work to do both within Netflix and in our content.”

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Entertainment

Ted Sarandos says he “screwed up” Chappelle special response

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Ted Sarandos, Dave Chappelle
Photo: Eamonn M. McCormack (Getty Images for BFI), Brian Ach (Getty Images for Universal Music Group)

Ted Sarandos wants you to know that he “screwed up.” After two weeks of suspensions, firings, internal memos, and people criticizing Chappelle’s latest attempt at making his transphobia funny, the Netflix co-CEO is ready to admit some wrongdoing. Not for the transphobia that he platformed, but rather for not leading “with a lot more humanity.”

In a late-night chat with Variety, Sarandos walked back some of his disastrous response to The Closer backlash. But, this time, rather than defending Dave Chappelle from his employees who were rightfully hurt by their boss’ decision to pay $24.1 million for Chappelle’s tirades about trans people, Sarandos has a new message: Whoopsie doodles.

When asked by Variety if he had any regrets about backing the transphobic comedian, Sarandos said:

Obviously, I screwed up that internal communication. I did that, and I screwed it up in two ways. First and foremost, I should have led with a lot more humanity. Meaning, I had a group of employees who were definitely feeling pain and hurt from a decision we made. And I think that needs to be acknowledged up front before you get into the nuts and bolts of anything. I didn’t do that. That was uncharacteristic for me, and it was moving fast and we were trying to answer some really specific questions that were floating. We landed with some things that were much more blanket and matter-of-fact that are not at all accurate.

Of course storytelling has real impact in the real world. I reiterate that because it’s why I work here, it’s why we do what we do. That impact can be hugely positive, and it can be quite negative. So, I would have been better in that communication. They were joining a conversation already in progress, but out of context. But that happens, internal emails go out. In all my communications I should lean into the humanity up front and not make a blanket statement that could land very differently than it was intended.

Of course, this all comes after two weeks of crisis management at Netflix. During that time, the company suspended and reinstated a trans employee who criticized the special on Twitter and fired another trans employee who leaked how much Chapelle got paid for the special. The latter also organized a company walkout in solidarity with those on staff who aren’t “team TERF.” And all this for the low, low price of $24.1 million.

Sarandos failed to elaborate on how the company might avoid this in the future. We assume this is because saying that they’re not going to platform anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric might prevent them from offering future Chappelle specials. In short, he said they’re still working on it:

We are trying to support creative freedom and artistic expression among the artists that work at Netflix. Sometimes, and we do make sure our employees understand this, because of that — because we’re trying to entertain the world, and the world is made up of folks with a lot of different sensibilities and beliefs and senses of humor and all those things — sometimes, there will be things on Netflix that you dislike. That you even find to be harmful. Where we’ll definitely draw the line is on something that would intentionally call for physically harming other people or even remove protections. For me, Intent to cause physical harm crosses the line, for sure.

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Nevertheless, despite paying Chappelle an ungodly amount of money to attack trans people, Sarandos says that the company is still investing in “LGBTQ+ stories.” Stories, now, apparently mean something and have an impact on the world.

We have a creative equity fund that we’ve heavily invested in, exactly the things I believe they are asking about. We have and continue to invest enormously amounts of content dollars in LGBTQ+ stories for the world and giving them a global platform. Specifically, trans and non-binary content as well. That’s obviously continued strong, and I think we’ll continue on that path.

So there you go. Just because Sarandos is willing to pay Chappelle $24 million for what GLAAD called “anti-LGBTQ diatribes” doesn’t mean he won’t put some money towards cultivating LGBTQIA+ subscribers. Money’s money, after all.

Read the whole interview at Variety.



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Entertainment

Netflix CEO Defends Dave Chappelle’s Transphobia In Email

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Photo: Stacy Revere (Getty Images)

Dave Chappelle’s latest comedy special, The Closer, contains some very sad, very harmful anti-trans comments. Faced with widespread criticism over his company’s decision to bankroll and air the special, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos has decided to email the entire company twice, and in doing so simply make things worse.

When the show was first released on Netflix, a prominent trans employee and two colleagues were suspended by the company for speaking out against Chappelle publicly then crashing a senior meeting (and after public backlash were reinstated only a day later). On Friday Sarandos sent out a memo defending Chappelle, saying “Chappelle is one of the most popular stand-up comedians today, and we have a long standing deal with him. His last special ‘Sticks & Stones,’ also controversial, is our most watched, stickiest and most award winning stand-up special to date”.

Employees are now planning a “virtual walkout” in protest, and in response to continued tensions, Sarandos has decided to double down and issue another memo. First obtained by Variety, it reads (emphasis mine):

We know that a number of you have been left angry, disappointed and hurt by our decision to put Dave Chappelle’s latest special on Netflix. Also, we have many new colleagues who want to better understand the principles that guide our team’s content choices, especially with challenging titles like this.

Our goal is to entertain the world, which means programming for a diversity of tastes. This member-centric view has driven our growth over the last 20 years, despite all the competition, and remains Netflix’s north star today. We also support artistic freedom to help attract the best creators, and push back on government and other censorship requests. Our Entertain the World and Strategy Bets memos, which we’ve debated extensively, are clear about both principles – including the trade offs, i.e. that we’ll always have titles some members and employees dislike or believe are harmful.

With The Closer, we understand that the concern is not about offensive-to-some content but titles which could increase real world harm (such as further marginalizing already marginalized groups, hate, violence etc.) Last year, we heard similar concerns about 365 Days and violence against women. While some employees disagree, we have a strong belief that content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.

The strongest evidence to support this is that violence on screens has grown hugely over the last thirty years, especially with first party shooter games, and yet violent crime has fallen significantly in many countries. Adults can watch violence, assault and abuse – or enjoy shocking stand-up comedy – without it causing them to harm others. We are working hard to ensure marginalized communities aren’t defined by a single story. So we have Sex Education, Orange is the New Black, Control Z, Hannah Gadsby and Dave Chappelle all on Netflix. Key to this is increasing diversity on the content team itself.

In his special, Chappelle makes harsh jokes about many different groups, which is his style and a reason his fans love his comedy and commentary. Stand-up comedians often expose issues that are uncomfortable because the art by nature is a highly provocative. As a leadership team, we do not believe that The Closer is intended to incite hatred or violence against anyone (per our Sensitive Content guidelines).

We’ve had these operating principles around pleasing our members and artistic expression for many years, and the team’s decision to put The Closer on our service was consistent with them. The variety and quality of our content is what members value most. Our hope is that you can be hugely inspired by entertaining the world, while also living with titles you strongly believe have no place on Netflix. This will not be the last title that causes some of you to wonder if you can still love Netflix. I sincerely hope that you can.

-Ted

What the absolute fuck. One of the world’s most popular comedians standing on stage and saying proudly that he’s “team TERF” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) is doing an incredible amount of harm. It is doing literally nothing else but delegitimising and directly attacking an entire group of marginalised human beings. To try and shrug that off by using anecdotal, unscientific and unrelated points about video games, or to only use actual physical attacks as his chief metric for “harm”, is a staggering thing to read.

Good luck to every single one of the 1000 employees taking part in the “virtual walkout” next week.

 
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Business

Robinhood Revenue Surges on Cryptocurrency Trades

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Revenue at Robinhood Markets Inc. more than doubled in the second quarter thanks to a torrent of customers trading cryptocurrency, but the company posted a big loss due to an emergency funding deal earlier this year.

The trading app recorded a loss of $502 million, or $2.16 per share, on revenue of $565 million in its first earnings report since its July initial public offering. In the second quarter of 2020, Robinhood generated a profit of $58 million on revenue of $244 million.

Nearly 14.2 million Robinhood users, or roughly 63% of the company’s customer base with funded accounts, traded digital assets in the second quarter. Robinhood earned $233 million in fees from routing customers’ cryptocurrency trades to high-speed trading firms, with dogecoin accounting for nearly two-thirds of the volume. That is up from just $5 million a year earlier.

That helped offset slowdowns in other parts of Robinhood’s business due in part to waning interest in meme stocks. For instance, fees Robinhood earned executing customers’ stock trades fell 27% to $52 million.

Despite decreased stock-trading activity, interest that Robinhood received on margin loans nearly tripled to $31 million. Around 700,000 users held about $5.4 billion in margin-loan balances at the end of June.

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