Strongly challenged by Internet users in August, the platform was forced to withdraw a controversial poster of the film "Mignonnes", "Cuties" in English.
She is now the subject of a boycott campaign on social networks, the film accused according to its detractors of hypersexualizing the characters.
Thousands of Internet users called Thursday, via social networks, to boycott Netflix, accused of having put online the French film "Mignonnes", which sexualizes, according to them, the heroic children of this feature film.
More than 200,000 tweets used the keyword #CancelNetflix (remove Netflix) on Thursday, making it, at one time, the world's leading "hashtag" on Twitter.
A first wave of criticism, in August, led Netflix to withdraw a visual used to promote the film, entitled "Cuties" in English and which was released in theaters in mid-August in France, before being put online in the United States. United Wednesday.
The platform also apologized for using this "inappropriate" visual, she said.
From left to right conservative
If the attacks came from all types of Internet users Thursday, including on the left, the subject has undoubtedly gathered many American conservatives, among members of the Republican Party, some of whom are candidates for Congress.
“Child pornography is illegal in America,” tweeted DeAnna Lorraine, who was a Republican candidate in California for a seat in the House of Representatives.
"As the mother of an 8-year-old daughter, I strongly support #CancelNetflix," added Beatrice Cardenas, also a Republican from California.
The film, which received a director's award at the prestigious American Sundance Film Festival, tells the story of Amy, an 11-year-old Parisian, who must juggle the strict rules of her Senegalese family and the tyranny of appearance and appearance. social networks, which plays full with children of his age.
She joins a dance group formed by three other girls from her neighborhood, whose choreographies are sometimes suggestive, like those of many current pop stars.
"Morally and ethically reprehensible"
“The hypersexualization of girls (and boys) is sickening,” tweeted Omar Navarro, another Republican politician.
"It is morally and ethically reprehensible. Pedophiles, child rapists and perverts would feast on #Cuties."
Some used the keyword #SaveTheChildren (save the children), which initially corresponded to a real charity campaign for the organization Save The Children but was taken over by the QAnon movement conspirators.
This theory, popular within the extreme right and of which no element has ever been demonstrated, wants in particular that celebrities, mostly left-wing, have organized a vast pedophile ring, which Donald Trump would have the mission to dismantle.
Faced with this torrent of criticism, they were a few Thursday to step up to defend the film, among them the American actress Tessa Thompson ("Creed", "Avengers: Endgame"), who found it "magnificent" .
"It allows a new voice to express itself", she wrote on Twitter, referring to the director Maïmouna Doucouré, who "draws on her experience".
"I am disappointed by the current speech" which criticizes the film, she added.
"'Cuties' is a social column against the sexualization of young children," a Netflix spokesperson told AFP.
The film evokes "the pressure young girls face, dictated by social networks and society in general," she added.
"We encourage all those who feel concerned by these issues to view the film," concluded the spokesperson.