New terrible Netflix change; Cracking down on password sharing

     Netflix is planning on cracking down on password sharing. Their profits are falling, and it’s no wonder–they keep making awful changes.

     The most recent offender–as said above–is their attempt to stop password sharing. As of the end of 2022, Netflix had 230.7 million subscribers, over 100 million of which share passwords. However, this is by Netflix’s definition of sharing. “A Netflix account is meant to be shared in one household (people who live in the same location with the account owner),” Netflix says.

     This is an awful definition. It fails to account for the millions of people who share passwords within the family but have divorced parents and two houses, or even people who move off to college but continue to use their family’s Netflix login.

     Sure, there is actual password sharing, but that has never been a problem. Netflix even tweeted in 2017, “Love is sharing a password.” Now all of a sudden, since Netflix’s profits are down just a little bit, they decide to swoop in and claim money from the (alleged) 100 million people stealing subscriptions! In reality, they are punishing millions of people with families that don’t live together or travel often.

     Netflix originally explained the change by stating, “we are going to offer the ability for borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their own account, and for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create sub-accounts (“extra member”), if they want to pay for family or friends.” 

     After the absolutely genius business decision was announced, Netflix (obviously) received an astronomical amount of backlash. This led to them reversing their decision in a statement that said these rules were never intended for the United States. 

     Even though these changes have only been present in Latin American countries, it’s only a matter of time before it leaks into other areas. What does this mean for Netflix? They probably think it means they are going to get 100 million more subscribers real soon. However, what it really means is that people finally have the last push to boycott and unsubscribe from the service.