Contemporary American culture is in the process of Christian decentralization. While this shift is laying the groundwork for a more diverse belief system that better reflects the breadth of our nation’s culture, the pace of this process is not slowing down. One such hoax is the rumor that Netflix is removing Christian-oriented movies from its streaming catalog in favor of other religions.
There is no basis for this claim. In 2021, when the latest rumor went viral, Netflix released a statement to USA Today and flatly denied that the Christian film was intended to be removed. That’s not to say that relevant media can’t be put out—Netflix regularly changes its catalog based on what people watch or the contractual availability of its website—but it’s not intentionally limited to biblical content.
A quick search proves that Netflix isn’t lying. One Week Away, original faith-based Netflix musicals, and titles like WWE Studios and Blumhouse’s cult drama Tilt The Resurrection of Gavin Stone are still available to watch. In fact, the genre is alive and well on Netflix. Not just on Netflix, there are movies about the Bible that you should definitely add to your must-see list.
So how did we get here? Where did this rumor start? The truth is…it’s so sad.
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Facebook believes Netflix hates Christians because its satire is taken too seriously
In 2016 (a great year for movies), the English-based satirical website News Thump stirred the pot by publishing an article titled “Netflix to remove all Christian content after Muslim complaints.” It consists of false statements such as “We request that you remove this horrendous material from your website immediately. It’s too bad we have to pay bulls *** we can download the Dawn of France for free without the infidel’s face being shot.” our television. “If that wasn’t enough to check the legitimacy of the article, the author of the piece inadvertently stated that the fake quote was sent to the Netflix CEO on a kosher sheepskin.
As the satirical media tends to do, the post uses deliberately inflammatory language to make a point. Although the article itself does not have a “satire” tag, News Thump’s About Page clearly states that it is “a satirical and misleading website with a daily sweep of current affairs from the UK and around the world”.
USA Today cited the News Thump article as the original source of the rumours, and claimed that some people had taken their exclusive premium content and spread it like wildfire on Facebook. Again, the moral here is to check your sources before sharing information. Especially if the news is on Facebook, a social app that allows disinformation to spread without proper flags.
