Netflix may wish it could rewind Monday afternoon. That’s when a popular Twitter account associated with the hacktivist movement Anonymous began encouraging users to cancel their Netflix accounts in protest of Netflix’s newly-formed political action committee.
“Dear freedom lovers, @netflix is forming a PAC to push for a new version of SOPA, cancel your sub and go back to pirating!” tweeted @YourAnonNews at about 5 pm ET, referring to FLIXPAC, the name of Netflix’s political action committee formed over the weekend.
FLIXPAC, though, hasn’t collected, much less spent a single cent yet on any cause or candidate.
Still, the outraged tweets of Anonymous-affiliated and supporting users came fast and furious following YourAnonNews’s tweet, with many tweeting screenshots of cancelled Netflix subscriptions.
Many users said they were canceling their accounts due to Netflix’s reported support of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a separate piece of cybersecurity legislation that has been incorrectly conflated with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP (PIPA), two anti-online piracy bills that galvinized many Web users in protest against them in January.
