Netflix May Face a Lawsuit From the Satanic Temple Over 'The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina'

Netflix could soon face legal action from the Satanic Temple, a religious group that claims its copyrighted design of the deity Baphomet was used without permission in the The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

In Sabrina—the streaming service’s recently released, spooky rendition of Sabrina the Teenage Witch—the statue of a large goat-headed figure appears as Satan in a handful of episodes. A statue of this figure flanked by two children appears as a centerpiece in Sabrina’s school of witchcraft, the Academy of the Unseen Arts.

According to Lucien Greaves, co-founder and spokesperson of the Satanic Temple, this statue appropriated the religion’s copyrighted monument. He tweeted the group’s intent to take legal action on Sunday.

Greaves also shared a side-by-side comparison of the Satanic Temple’s statue and the figure from Netflix’s Sabrina, showing the near-identical resemblance.

He later defended the decision to seek legal action against Netflix in another tweet, implying Netflix’s use of the statue promotes false stereotypes about the Satanic Temple.

In The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the goat deity appears as an imposing, powerful figure that demands witches sign their allegiance to him, the Dark Lord, in exchange for their magical powers. This also requires them to do his bidding and follow the practices of the Church of Night, which includes rites of human sacrifice.

In a statement to CNN, the Satanic Temple’s legal counsel further explained the reason for legal action, adding that this representation of Baphomet is “completely antithetical” to what the religion stands for.

Netflix is beyond weird all by themselves.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-netflix-radical-transparency-and-blunt-firings-unsettle-the-ranks-1540497174

The executive in question, Jonathan Friedland, “sunshined” his misdeed—Netflix lingo for an apology or act of transparency in front of colleagues—in the hopes it would blow over. It didn’t. After anger bubbled up in the ranks, Mr. Hastings fired Mr. Friedland in June, and sent a companywide email saying he had come to grips with his own “privilege.”

Employees are encouraged to give one another blunt feedback. Managers are all told to apply a “keeper test” to their staff—asking themselves whether they would fight to keep a given employee—a mantra for firing people who don’t fit the culture and ensuring only the strongest survive.

The firings can be insensitive, several former employees said. Ernie Tam, who had worked as a Netflix engineer for six years, was called into his manager’s office on a Monday morning in 2015. “You’re no longer a star performer,” the manager said. An HR representative came in, discussed Mr. Tam’s severance package and took his laptop. “I just left the office and never came back,”

New employees soon learn to speak Netflix. The lingo includes phrases like “What is your north star,” “highly aligned, loosely coupled,” and “context, not control.”

“If you don’t use that lingo on a daily basis, you’re not going to succeed,” said one Netflix short-timer.

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