Netflix Targets Critical ‘Cuties’ Tweets with Copyright Takedown Requests

This movie's come up a few times on ATS in the last little bit. Thought i'd take a break from polirics and election stuff to bring another update to the controversy around this movie and another censorship tactic being employed by these large platforms.

This time it's through DMCA takedowns sent out by netflix against comments critical of the movie.

torrentfreak.com...

Netflix has sent over a hundred takedown requests this week targeting tweets that are critical of the movie 'Cuties' and/or urged people to cancel their subscriptions. The takedown notices list the full tweets but only the linked media, which reportedly includes trailers, were removed. The takedowns are highly unusual as Netflix usually targets classic pirated content.

Yesterday, however, we spotted a series of copyright infringement notices with a different and rather uncomfortable theme.

The streaming giant asked Twitter to remove dozens of tweets that included footage from the French coming-of-age film Cuties. This film hasn’t been without controversy and the same can be said about the takedown requests too.

To provide some context, Netflix acquired the global distribution rights for Cuties and started promoting it this summer. This created quite some backlash as many people felt that the young actors had been sexualized after being filmed in all kinds of suggestive poses.

We won’t go into the various viewpoints on this topic or the lawsuit Netflix faces in Texas over ‘lewd visual material.’ Opinions from both sides are readily available all over the web, including social media.

For a while, the hashtags #cancelnetflix was trending and today it’s still being used. It’s clear that, weeks after the film came out, many people are still upset

TorrentFreak spoke to Amber, who had a video that was posted in her tweet removed. This wasn’t an illegally recorded clip of the film, she says, but the trailer which was widely distributed by Netflix.

“Someone posted the trailer and I retweeted it and stated how I felt about the movie. I believe people have the right to be upset about the movie. If people share the trailer and say ‘go watch it’ it’s not a problem but if someone disagrees with it, it’s a problem,” she tells us.

Posting clips of a publicly released trailer with commentary falls clearly under fair use. It's an abuse of an already overused copyright law to silence critical opinions.

To add to this, DMCA takedown notices were used to silence political comments on Proctorio.

techcrunch.com...

A series of tweets by one Miami University student that were critical of a proctoring software company have been hidden by Twitter after the company filed a copyright takedown notice.

Erik Johnson, a student who works as a security researcher on the side, posted a lengthy tweet thread in early September about Proctorio, an Arizona-based software company that several U.S. schools — including his own — use to monitor students who are taking their exams remotely.

But six weeks later, Johnson received an email from Twitter saying three of those tweets had been removed from his account in response to a request by Proctorio filed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Get ready for a new form of censorship. Now our opinions will soon violate the copyright of some company that paints them in a negative light.

Or say, negative political commentary alongside news clips or other such things.

a reply to: dug88

Further evidence people just need to ditch their social media.

The same platforms have been aggregating an alarming amount of intimate data and then selling it. Facebook went as far as tracking their customers with GPS. And they have a very bias and agenda driven approach to T&C.

People keep forgetting they vote with their dollar and participation.

There will be a slow influx of hideousness much
like this so called "movie" of "entertainment".

Enjoy your Technocrat overlords.

And this is right up Joe Biden's alley.

a reply to: dug88

DMCA takedowns are perfectly legal. If you own it and don’t want it, or part of it being used (with or without profit), DMCA is the way it’s done. Although it can be argued it’s a crappy way of doing things, the world hasn’t really caught up to being as digital as everything really is.

As for “fair use”? That’s a court thing. Outside of court, “fair use” is ultimately up to the person who owns said product.

So I’m confused. Here we have issues on a major social media network using copyright laws to subvert reviews they find questionable relating to the distasteful movie in question. Now what’s interesting to me is this, what is social media without all the pop culture references and memes that didn’t originate in a vacuum....

Do they get to pick and choose in which instances they defer to opt to this copyright loophole cum censorship?

Just food for thought

originally posted by: burntheships
There will be a slow influx of hideousness much
like this so called "movie" of "entertainment".

Enjoy your Technocrat overlords.

And this is right up Joe Biden's alley.

It's always been around, just in different forms. Kid beauty pageants, cheer leaders, child singers. There has been blatant secularization of minors since the beginning of time.

Just don't consume it. It's that easy.

As far as politicians are concerned, Epstein knew them all. And Trump had pageants for these girls to get all dolled up while getting rated on their appearance.

I still don't understand how Trump is deemed morally superior to other politicians. The dude is a sleeze bag. He also used to be a Democrat and is more likely an opportunist than a convicted ideologue.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Not a fan of the pageants, though they were of age
of 18? Yeah there has always been crimes against
children, but for a society that wants to claim
moral superiority they don't have any ground.

a reply to: burntheships

but for a society that wants to claim moral superiority they don't have any ground.

I can't imagine how we could claim moral superiority as a whole at this point.

Do I love living in an open society? Sure, is there a lot of scumminess, absolutely.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker

I can't imagine how we could claim moral superiority as a whole at this point.

Oh, I agree. However it is boiling down to political correctness
at this point. When crimes against children are no longer
politically incorrect, then few will care.

originally posted by: slatesteam
So I’m confused. Here we have issues on a major social media network using copyright laws to subvert reviews they find questionable relating to the distasteful movie in question. Now what’s interesting to me is this, what is social media without all the pop culture references and memes that didn’t originate in a vacuum....

Do they get to pick and choose in which instances they defer to opt to this copyright loophole cum censorship?

Just food for thought

I think the quote from the article said they were focused on posts that included trailers and clips, which would make sense from a copyright standing. If the posts were opinions only and they still sent them C&D letters, that's a whole 'nother ballgame.

originally posted by: burntheships

originally posted by: CriticalStinker

I can't imagine how we could claim moral superiority as a whole at this point.

Oh, I agree. However it is boiling down to political correctness
at this point. When crimes against children are no longer
politically incorrect, then few will care.

Disclaimer, I haven't seen the movie.... So I'm kind of going off of what I've heard. But, I've noticed most who say it's blatant abuse haven't seen it either. Those who have seen it, even the more prudish that I know have said the movie is kind of ripping on the social trends. Now, from an observer who hasn't seen it, I have to say their advertising of it is at the very least distasteful, that is the only thing I can say confidently about it.

As far as the trends leading to the openness of such things, again, it's been deeply rooted in our society, along with others for a long time. It goes back to everything I listed, the catholic church, boy scouts, coyotes with immigrants, ect.

The trope that this is new or exclusive to leftism takes away from the deeply rooted problems that have existed for some time.

Hopefully it's not as prevalent as it seems though. I think most people are disgusted by it in all reality. Most people are innately protective of kids.

a reply to: TerryDon79

en.m.wikipedia.org...

That's entirely not true at all...

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Have not seen it. And I would be considered
prudish. Nothing is new under the sun. However,
does not make it less wrong.

My point being that it is questionable that
Twitter should even allow tweets about
"Cuties" movie, but they are only concerned
about copyrights.

Twitter is Orwellian in the worst way.

a reply to: HalWesten
Thanks. I get that sentiment legally speaking too.

Just seems like a “do as i say not as I do kinda thing”

Another query might reveal insight into whether this happens to everyone using clips. He movie or just those part of the backlash and outcry against the movie and its media giant parent Corp....

Again, just curious.

originally posted by: slatesteam
a reply to: HalWesten
Thanks. I get that sentiment legally speaking too.

Just seems like a “do as i say not as I do kinda thing”

Another query might reveal insight into whether this happens to everyone using clips. He movie or just those part of the backlash and outcry against the movie and its media giant parent Corp....

Again, just curious.

Edit: I’m not sure how, but I think another aspect that gets me about this free speech/big tech issue is how the private corporation facet comes into play, and how it applies here when viewed through that lens regarding censorship and the 1st amendment..kinda like you can’t tell protestors how to protest if they’re protesting you??

originally posted by: dug88
a reply to: TerryDon79

en.m.wikipedia.org...

That's entirely not true at all...

I guess you didn’t read your own source and missed this part?

...by allowing as a defense to copyright infringement claims certain limited uses that might otherwise be considered infringement.

A defence would only be needed AFTER a claim has been made.

originally posted by: burntheships
a reply to: CriticalStinker

Have not seen it. And I would be considered
prudish. Nothing is new under the sun. However,
does not make it less wrong.

It's not my cup of tea either, doubt I'd watch it.

It may be surprising, but I'm pretty prudish too. Open minded, but prudish when it comes to the constant sexualization of everything.

Bernay did a hell of a job.

How else do you fight people who brainwash others and begging them to delete netflix and sue it and whatever?

Same people are the ones voting for Biden lol