Streaming media giant Netflix reports paid subscribers numbering in the hundreds of millions. However, it is not without its critics. A national Cancel Netflix Movement has many wondering what the company did wrong and whether people are actually dropping subscriptions.

2020 provided good examples of people canceling for personal and impersonal reasons alike, while corresponding financial reports from the company shed light on the phenomenon.

Why Cancel Netflix?

Netflix is easy to cancel.

There are a lot of reasons why someone might quit Netflix. For one thing, Netflix often raises its prices. If that was not enough, the company is not the only game in town.

While Netflix offers an alternative to cable, or "linear video" as Netflix calls it, there are more streaming services popping up all the time. The Netflix corporate overview plays this down to investors, as Netflix compares itself and rival HBO to cable's coexisting competitors ABC and NBC.

"The transition to streaming entertainment, with it's greater customer satisfaction, will mean growth for many services," the overview states.

Quarterly reports to investors often get more specific. A report for Q3 of 2020 specifically mentioned "the debut of Comcast's Peacock, which comes on the heels of the launch of HBO Max and Disney+."

Netflix is certainly right about some people paying for more than one streaming service for the sake of differing exclusive and original content. However, more streaming services must also mean some watchers closing their Netflix accounts and signing up for other platforms.

Rising rates and changing markets aside, there are those who quit Netflix for more impassioned reasons.

The "Cancel Netflix" Movement

Netflix tries to host content for everyone. But, as the old saying goes, "a friend to all is a friend to none." Some of the most dramatic and press-worthy reasons people are canceling Netflix subscriptions have to do with protesting content. Or, as the case may be, people are canceling Netflix to protest the removal of content.

When Netflix Cancels Your Favorite Title

Image Credit: AntMan3001/Flickr

One brand of Cancel Netflix protestors means to punish Netflix for removing shows that they enjoyed. As streaming services including Netflix turn to producing more of their own content, they can't afford to keep titles up forever. The result is that even shows with dedicated fanbases come down if that fanbase isn't large enough.

To be fair, this isn't a problem unique to Netflix. However, canceling Netflix subscriptions can send a strong message that we weren't able to send as effectively when Fox canceled Firefly.

When Netflix Goes Too Far

The more dramatic Cancel Netflix movements have come from former subscribers who took issue with content that Netflix chose to put up rather than content that they chose to take down.

The hashtag #CancelNetflix ballooned in September 2020 as subscribers took issue with the film Cuties. According to The Verge, the French film drawing attention to the sexualization of young girls was attacked by critics who hadn't seen the film and misunderstood its intentions, in part because of poor early marketing by Netflix.

The backlash was international, but in the United States it became more volatile with adoption from QAnon. With the Cancel Netflix movement blowing up just before groups like Facebook banned QAnon, the narrative painted Netflix and Cuties as part of a larger child exploitation conspiracy.

Meanwhile, Netflix was already receiving backlash over Messiah. The drama series, which launched in January 2020 and was not renewed for a second season, followed the government investigation of a mysterious religious leader.

The Independent reported that the coronavirus pandemic and a demanding production budget likely played a role in the cancellation. However, the series was also accused of religious insensitivity. The writers' drawing on Islamic tradition in particular led many to call for cancellation of the series over perceived anti-Islamic subtext.

How Many People Have Canceled Netflix?

"Why are people canceling Netflix?" is a valid question. The shorter "Are people canceling Netflix?" is also a good question.

Netflix is less than forthcoming when it comes to subscription cancellation metrics. So, any kind of by-the-numbers assessment requires some speculation. While the quarterly reports do not explicitly record cancellations, they do record the number of active subscribers.

As far back as we checked, the number of Netflix subscriptions has only gone up. That does not mean that people were not canceling, it just means that more people were signing up than were signing off.

So, let's take a look at subscriptions around the time that Cancel Netflix movements arose in 2020 around Messiah and Cuties:

Netflix subscriptions in 2019 and 2020

From Q4 2019 to Q1 2020, subscriptions increased by about 15 million users. This is during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also includes the Messiah launch. From Q1 to Q2, paid memberships went up another 10 million. In the next quarter, which saw the Cuties Cancel Netflix movement, membership increased by fewer than 3 million.

So, while subscriptions only went up, the rate at which subscriptions went up slowed in the later part of 2020. That could be because of fewer people signing up during that period, or it could mean that the number of people signing up was steady but was diminished by many people canceling subscriptions. We just don't know.

With the information at our disposal, we cannot say with certainty that the Cancel Netflix movements were the cause of slowed growth. What we can say is that, even if we attribute that slowdown in growth to the Cancel Netflix movements, those movements weren't effective enough to actually decrease the number of active Netflix users.

Should I Cancel Netflix?

If you want to quit Netflix, quit Netflix. If the streaming service's content offends you and you do not want to support it, then don't. If the content just is not that interesting to you, take your money to another streaming service like HBO Max or Disney+.

That said, if you worry about Cancel Netflix movements bringing the service down, you can probably rest easy. In fact, you can assume most Netflix subscribers aren't even aware of such movements. Alternatively, if you hope that your cancellation is the nail in the coffin, it probably isn't.