A grand jury in Tyler County, Texas indicted Netflix, Inc. for “knowingly” distributing the graphic and “lewd” film “Cuties” on its streaming platform.
Texas State Representative for District 6 Matt Schaefer announced the indictment, tweeting a picture of the official document Tuesday.
“Netflix, Inc. indicted by grand jury in Tyler Co., Tx for promoting material in Cuties film which depicts lewd exhibition of pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 yrs of age which appeals to the prurient interest in sex #Cuties #txlege,” he wrote.
Netflix, Inc. indicted by grand jury in Tyler Co., Tx for promoting material in Cuties film which depicts lewd exhibition of pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 yrs of age which appeals to the prurient interest in sex #Cuties #txlege pic.twitter.com/UJ1hY8XJ2l
— Matt Schaefer (@RepMattSchaefer) October 6, 2020
The film, which depicts hypersexualization of young girls, is about a traditionally raised 11-year-old Senegalese girl’s journey to fit in with a “free-spirited dance crew.” The film contains scenes with nudity, twerking, child pornography, and sexually suggestive content.
According to the document, the indictment charges Netflix with “knowingly promoting visual material which depicts the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child who was younger than 18 years of age at the time the visual material was created, which appeals to the prurient interest in sex and has no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”
The indictment focuses on Netflix Co-CEOs Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. and Theodore Anthony Sarandos Jr.’s “issuing, selling, promoting, delivering, distributing, disseminating, transmitting, publishing, exhibiting, or advertising” the film on Netflix despite its graphic content
“The promotion of said film was authorized or recklessly tolerated by a high managerial agent of Netflix, Inc., namely, Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. or Theodore Anthony Sarandos Jr., acting on behalf of Netflix Inc. and within the scope of the agent’s office or employment at Netflix, Inc.,” the indictment states.
Netflix received backlash from many conservative communities in mid-September for the film’s disturbing and hypersexualized portrayal of pre-pubescent girls. Many noted that the exploitation of the pre-teens in the movie by showing pornographic scenes was completely unacceptable and launched a hashtag campaign, #CancelNetflix, against the company on various social media sites with the hopes that people would cancel their streaming accounts.
