{"id":3881,"date":"2021-12-01T12:36:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T11:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/01\/techscape-netflix-and-the-future-of-tech-employee-activism\/"},"modified":"2021-12-01T12:36:49","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T11:36:49","slug":"techscape-netflix-and-the-future-of-tech-employee-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/01\/techscape-netflix-and-the-future-of-tech-employee-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"TechScape: Netflix and the future of tech employee activism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Up for discussion in this week\u2019s newsletter: an internal brawl over Dave Chappelle\u2019s Netflix special is just the latest chapter in increasing activism in the industry<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/info\/ng-interactive\/2021\/jun\/25\/techscape-sign-up\">Don\u2019t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Two former Netflix employees who criticised comedian Dave Chappelle for comments <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/stage\/2021\/oct\/06\/dave-chappelle-the-closer-review-aggressive-gags-and-feeble-protests\">directed at the trans community in The Closer<\/a>, a special for the streaming service, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2021\/nov\/23\/netflix-dave-chappelle-special-labor-complaint\">have dropped labour complaints<\/a> related to Netflix\u2019s response to the saga, they announced this week.<\/p>\n<p>The decision brings a close to the most recent chapter of activism at the company and one of the more visible tech industry walkouts in the last few months. But the momentum of internal organising, particularly around social justice issues, has been building for years.<\/p>\n<p>A group of current and former contractors who worked for years at the social network\u2019s Berlin-based moderation centres has reported witnessing colleagues become \u201caddicted\u201d to graphic content and hoarding ever more extreme examples for a personal collection. They also said others were pushed towards the far right by the amount of hate speech and fake news they read every day.<\/p>\n<p>They describe being ground down by the volume of the work, numbed by the graphic violence, nudity and bullying they have to view for eight hours a day, working nights and weekends, for \u201cpractically minimum pay\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Apple value that underpins all of this, elevating the secrecy concerns from an issue of potential lost revenue to one of core company DNA, is \u201csurprise and delight.\u201d It\u2019s the idea that Apple products should catch the public unaware, giving them something they want before they even know they want it.<\/p>\n<p>But the secrecy has bled over into other parts of Apple\u2019s culture, too. Although the company specifically says that its policies \u201cshould not be interpreted as restricting your right to speak freely about your wages, hours, or working conditions,\u201d the reality is that there\u2019s a strong expectation that internal problems should be kept internal.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2021\/dec\/01\/techscape-netflix-dave-chappelle-protests-twitter\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1ee9add0255ea821933a8284f5fb5cf86c5fa02a\/0_116_3500_2101\/master\/3500.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=98e7edaac325fefcde7a78553f79cf51\" title=\"TechScape: Netflix and the future of tech employee activism\" \/>Up for discussion in this week\u2019s newsletter: an internal brawl over Dave Chappelle\u2019s Netflix special is just the latest chapter in increasing activism in the industry<br \/>\nDon\u2019t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<br \/>\nTwo former Netflix employees who criticised comedian Dave Chappelle for comments directed at the trans community in The Closer, a special for the streaming service, have dropped labour complaints related to Netflix\u2019s response to the saga, they announced this week.<br \/>\nThe decision brings a close to the most recent chapter of activism at the company and one of the more visible tech industry walkouts in the last few months. But the momentum of internal organising, particularly around social justice issues, has been building for years.<br \/>\nA group of current and former contractors who worked for years at the social network\u2019s Berlin-based moderation centres has reported witnessing colleagues become \u201caddicted\u201d to graphic content and hoarding ever more extreme examples for a personal collection. They also said others were pushed towards the far right by the amount of hate speech and fake news they read every day.<br \/>\nThey describe being ground down by the volume of the work, numbed by the graphic violence, nudity and bullying they have to view for eight hours a day, working nights and weekends, for \u201cpractically minimum pay\u201d.<br \/>\nThe Apple value that underpins all of this, elevating the secrecy concerns from an issue of potential lost revenue to one of core company DNA, is \u201csurprise and delight.\u201d It\u2019s the idea that Apple products should catch the public unaware, giving them something they want before they even know they want it.<br \/>\nBut the secrecy has bled over into other parts of Apple\u2019s culture, too. Although the company specifically says that its policies \u201cshould not be interpreted as restricting your right to speak freely about your wages, hours, or working conditions,\u201d the reality is that there\u2019s a strong expectation that internal problems should be kept internal. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Up for discussion in this week\u2019s newsletter: an internal brawl over Dave Chappelle\u2019s Netflix special is just the latest chapter in increasing activism in the industry Don\u2019t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Two former Netflix employees who criticised comedian Dave Chappelle for comments directed at the trans community in The Closer, &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2021\/12\/01\/techscape-netflix-and-the-future-of-tech-employee-activism\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">TechScape: Netflix and the future of tech employee activism<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}