Netflix Suspends Three Employees, Including One Who Criticized Dave Chappelle

Netflix has suspended three employees for crashing a meeting of its top executives, including an out trans person who criticized a new comedy special from Dave Chappelle.

Terra Field, a senior software engineer based in San Francisco, was among those suspended late last week for attending the “QBR,” Netflix’s quarterly business review, a two-day affair that convenes the top 500 employees at the company.

Field, who identifies as queer and trans, and the other employees were not invited to the virtual gathering.

Netflix did not suspend Field over recent tweets decrying what she called anti-trans jokes in the Chappelle special,but for attending uninvited. An investigation has been launched into the three employees.

Last Wednesday, Field wrote a lengthy Twitter thread about “The Closer,” the new Chappelle stand-up special in which the comic accuses the trans community of having “thin skin.”

At the meeting, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos fielded questions about how leadership should handle employees and talent upset over Chappelle’s remarks.

He addressed the entire group in a memo after the event, which read,“As with our other talent, we work hard to support their creative freedom — even though this means there will always be content on Netflix some people believe is harmful.”