Elon Musk publicly canceled his Netflix account on October 1, and he’s urging his followers to do it too. This right-wing streaming boycott campaign comes only weeks after over 1.7 million customers canceled their Disney streaming apps in the wake of ABC’s temporary suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. What gives? Turns out, a three-year-old cartoon.
What’s the drama?
On September 29, Musk tweeted “This is not ok,” with a repost of Chaya Raichik’s (Libs of TikTok) latest target: an animated series from 2022 that she says is “pushing pro-transgender on CHILDREN.” In the clip, a transmasculine character with freckles and a cropped blue haircut says, “I’m trans, Norma. And everyone at school knows, and everyone at home knows, and being here, it’s like a whole new place. I can just be Barney, and I can choose if and when I tell people. I’ve never been happier … Pugsley reminded me how important it is to live your life without apology.” Pugsley is a pug wearing a fez. “This show is advertised for 7-YEAR-OLDS,” Raichik tweets. “Parents-BEWARE.”
OMG. Dead End Paranormal Park, a show on Netflix, is pushing pro-transgender on CHILDREN.
This show is advertised for 7-YEAR-OLDS
It’s being promoted on @netflix kids now.
Parents- BEWARE pic.twitter.com/gh5UZftKns
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 29, 2025
What show is this?
The offending series is Dead End: Paranormal Park, a Netflix original animated series about a haunted theme park rated TV-Y7 for “fantasy violence” and “fear.” The main character, Barney, is a trans and Jewish teenager voiced by trans actor Zach Barack, who played one of Peter Parker’s classmates in the 2019 Marvel movie Spider-Man: Far From Home. Dead End premiered in 2022, aired 20 episodes across two seasons, and was officially canceled in January 2023.
Who is Hamish Steele?
Hamish Steele is a London-based animator and comic-book artist who created Dead End based on his Deadendia series of young-adult graphic novels. After Musk and Raichik amplified backlash against the show on X, Steele posted to Bluesky, saying, “Extremely nasty weird homophonic [sic] and antisemitic emails have started rolling in and it is getting a little scary.” He also said that his Instagram comments “are now flooded with replies saying I AM CHARLIE KIRK and that I celebrated his death (which I never did).” He has since deleted these Bluesky posts.
What does Charlie Kirk have to do with this?
In a tweet identifying Steele as the creator of Dead End, Raichik wrote, “After Charlie was ass*ssinated, he called Charlie a nazi and had a meltdown because people were mourning him.” Grok itself debunks the statement regarding Kirk; Musk’s AI tool cannot find evidence of Steele melting down over people mourning the assassination.
Has the boycott affected Netflix?
As Musk’s followers cancel their Netflix subscriptions and post the proof, Barron’s reported Thursday morning that Netflix stock has fallen “amid a conservative backlash centered on the creator of an animated TV show.” At the time of writing, Netflix stock is only down -0.88 percent, while Barron’s puts Tesla’s stock down -4.20 percent, nearly a five-times-steeper plunge. Meanwhile, conservatives including Rob Schneider are using the controversy they generated to push Angel Studios, a Christian independent film studio, up the stock market three weeks after its debut through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company. All episodes of Dead End: Paranormal Park are still available to stream on Netflix Kids.
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