In January 2020, Netflix removed a popular title from its streaming library in the US, provoking complaints from irate fans. Dozens of online petitions cropped up begging Netflix to reverse its decision, but it was no use. Friends was gone.
Well, sort of. The ’90s sitcom juggernaut was still available to purchase or rent through other services; it was just temporarily unavailable on any streaming platform. WarnerMedia had paid an estimated $425 million to bring the Central Perk crew to its newest streaming service, HBO Max, which launched this spring, so Netflix lost the rights. Although the amount of money involved is eye-watering, this sort of content swap is not unusual. Streaming services frequently rotate their offerings. Sometimes it’s due to licensing budgets. Or, as was the case with Friends, the result of losing bids to competitors. Sometimes it depends on what the services think their audiences want to see. Thus, people who began watching Frasier on Netflix last year are now continuing the show on Hulu. Similarly, people who enjoyed Wes Anderson’s Rushmore on Hulu in 2019 must now stream it with a Cinemax subscription. Most of the time, these programming changes aren’t met with accusations of artistic suppression.
This week, though, when HBO Max removed the Civil War drama Gone With the Wind from its roster, backlash commenced immediately. The film is still one of the most financially successful blockbusters ever, and actress Hattie McDaniel was the first black person to win an Oscar for her role in it. Gone With the Wind featured prominently in HBO Max’s promotional materials along with Friends for an obvious reason—it’s still popular.
So, just like when Netflix lost Friends, its disappearance prompted furor. This time, though, many of the prominent people complaining about the loss of Gone With the Wind characterized the programming choice as a troubling act of censorship. In a tweet referencing its removal, Senator Ted Cruz protested: “STOP the censorship, you Orwellian statists!” “The Woke Taliban have won,” Breitbart News declared. Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly wondered: “Where does this end??”
This anger isn’t just tied to the fact that Gone With the Wind is gone; it’s also tied to the reason HBO Max decided to yank it. The streaming service cited the film’s racist depictions as
