Netflix indicted by a Texas grand jury for controversial film “Cuties”

PHOTO CREDITS: NETFLIX

Netflix has been indicted by a Texas grand jury for the controversial film “Cuties,” according to Fox News. The criminal charge alleges that the streaming platform promotes “lewd visual material” of a child. The lawsuit focuses on the release of the French film “Cuties” that has been heavily criticized since its release last month. 

A Tyler County, Texas grand jury moved to return an indictment against Netflix on Sept. 23, 

confirmed on Tuesday via court documents. County prosecutors said the charge was based on a Texas law that makes it illegal to “knowingly promote” material that depicts the genitals or the pubic area of a child, clothed or partially clothed, and “which appeals to the prurient interest in sex and has no serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value,” accprding to the New York Times. 

Netflix has previously defended the film in statements to Fox News, calling the project “a powerful story about the pressure young girls face on social media and from society more generally growing up.” The media giant doubled down on Tuesday. “Cuties is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children,” a spokesperson for Netflix told Fox News. “This charge is without merit and we stand by the film.”

Republican lawmakers like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas have called for the Department of Justice to investigate the film. The hashtag #CancelNetflix has trended on Twitter, with parents, politicians and conspiracy theorists calling on the streaming service to remove the film. The film has also been incorporated into the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory that alleges, falsely, that top Democrats and celebrities are behind a global child-trafficking ring. Defenders of the film said the company’s botched marketing campaign undermined the work of its director, the French-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, who has said part of her reason for making the movie was to show the dangers of encouraging girls to be more sexualized.

ARTICLE: CONNOR KMIECIK, ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

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