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Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos argued that nearly half of the children’s platform’s content promoted transgenderism as inaccurate, after Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) pressed him on the matter during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
During a heated Senate hearing Tuesday on Netflix’s proposed deal with Warner Bros. Entertainment, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-State, pressed the streaming platform’s CEO on a recent statistic from a conservative women’s policy organization that argued that nearly half of Netflix’s children’s content “promotes transgender ideology.”
Hawley cited his own experience as a parent of young children, noting that he doesn’t let them “see anything” on Netflix unless he previews it first because he “has no confidence in what’s on (Netflix’s) platform,” the GOP senator told Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.
But Sarandos applauded Halwey’s claim, arguing that data showing that “almost half” of Netflix’s children’s programming promotes transsexualism was “inaccurate.”
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“Senator, Netflix has no political agenda,” Sarados told the Republican senator on Tuesday.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos testifies to US senators on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, February 3, 2025. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
“Well, then, why is your children’s programming so full of this highly sexualized, highly controversial, highly controversial agenda? I don’t understand. I find it strange,” Hawley responded before Srandos could finish.
“Respectfully, sir, it’s because it’s inaccurate. We have millions of hours of children’s programming. I—” the CEO of Netflix he continued before the Republican senator cut him off again.
“You don’t have a trans person, you don’t feature trans characters, trans stories, trans themes? It’s not in your programming?” Hawley fired.
“I’m saying that we present a wide variety of stories and programs that suit a wide variety of people’s tastes,” Sarandos said.
But Hawley went on to find that nearly half of Netflix’s children’s content promotes transgender ideology, a statistic first shared by the conservative women’s public policy group Concerned Women for America (CWA).
CWA released a report in December, stating that it found that 41% of G-rated series on Netflix and 41% of TV-Y7-rated shows on Netflix contain content that can be interpreted as pro-LGBTQ+.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos was seen shaking hands with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Moscow, at a Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill amid the streaming platform’s bid to buy Warner Bros. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
In defense of Hawley’s allegations, Sarandos emphasized that the platform has created “state-of-the-art tools” for parents to manage their video streaming options for their children. She added that the people at Netflix were also parents and shared the “same concerns about parenting” that Hawley has.
CWA’s published investigation into Netflix’s pro-trans content comes just days after Netflix announced a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Film and Television Studios. as well as HBO and HBO Max, which would make the streaming platform one of the most dominant in the world.
President Donald Trump has raised antitrust concerns about Netflix’s proposed takeover of Warner Bros. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters/Reuters)
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Although the deal has been announced, it has yet to undergo regulatory scrutiny. Other companies have also floated rival bids aimed at undermining Netflix’s ambitions.
“You want the United States government to allow you to become one of the largest, if not the largest, streaming monopolist in the world,” Hawley pointed out to Sarandos during Tuesday’s hearing. “I think we should care about the content you’re promoting.”
