Republican politicians are propelling a growing boycott of Netflix in response to the streamer debuting a French film called "Cuties," which denounces society's hyper-sexualization of young girls on social media.
Why it matters: Their condemnation of the film is linked to a child sex trafficking conspiracy theory central to the QAnon movement. Conservatives are using the conspiracy to target Netflix for its ties to Democrats, including its partnership with Barack and Michelle Obama.
Driving the news: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday asked the Justice Department to investigate whether the filmmakers "violated any federal laws against the production and distribution of child pornography," despite the fact that the film does not showcase any nudity of underage children.
- "[I]t is likely that the filming of this movie created even more explicit and abusive scenes, and that pedophiles across the world in the future will manipulate and imitate this film in abusive ways," he wrote.
- In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Cruz said, "Barack Obama makes a ton of money from Netflix and they are profiting, they are making money by selling the sexual exploitation of young kids."
Netflix has dismissed calls for a boycott. To Cruz's point, the film does appear to be sexually suggestive in its marketing materials, which show young girls scantily clad in dancing outfits and flirting with older boys. But the film, as Netflix notes, is meant to be social commentary against the sexualization of young children.
- Netflix redesigned the movie's original poster from its February debut at Sundance to show the main characters — 11-year-old girls — in revealing dance poses, transforming the film's first impression for many American viewers. A side-by-side comparison in The Verge shows the girls fully dressed in the first version.
- The company's stock was down Monday, after falling sharply the previous week after the film debuted.
Between the lines: Calls to boycott Netflix have grown louder in recent days, as more conservative voices, including Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, began to publicly condemn the movie and call for an investigation of Netflix.
- Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic presidential nominee, has also condemned the streamer and has called for its boycott.
- A boycott petition to cancel Netflix subscriptions on change.org has garnered over 647,000 signatures in recent days.
Be smart: The child trafficking theme is a powerful part of the QAnon movement because it's tied to a genuine issue — making it harder to distinguish conspiracy from activism.
- Fighting human trafficking has been a rallying cry in many evangelical communities for the past several years. The Jeffrey Epstein saga lent credibility to conspiracy theories about an elite child trafficking ring and helped revive QAnon.
What they're saying: “We need to protect our children. What I want to is to open people’s eyes on this issue and try to fix it,” filmmaker Maimouna Doucouré told Variety.
- Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
