Netflix Faces Texas Criminal Charge Over Controversial ‘Cuties’

(Bloomberg) -- Netflix Inc. is facing a criminal charge in Texas over its promotion of “Cuties,” a controversial French coming-of-age movie that premiered on the streaming service last month.

Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin said a grand jury returned an indictment on Sept. 23 charging the company with felony promotion of lewd visual material depicting a child. The Texas county, located about two hours northeast of Houston, has a population of slightly more than 21,000.

“Cuties,” which depicts an 11-year-old French-Senegalese girl in Paris rebelling against her conservative Muslim family by joining a dance crew with other girls, has become a lightning rod among conservatives. Hundreds of thousands of subscribers have threatened to cancel the service because of the film’s depiction of young girls in skimpy clothes dancing in suggestive ways, and Republican lawmakers including U.S. Senators Josh Hawley and Mike Lee have urged Netflix to take the film down.

In a statement on Babin’s indictment, Netflix defended the film by French-Senegalese director Maïmouna Doucouré, which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival in January. “‘Cuties’ is a social commentary against the sexualization of young children,” a company spokesperson said. “This charge is without merit and we stand by the film.”

Babin, a Republican voted into office in 2018, said in a statement posted on his Facebook page that he brought the charge after watching the film. “If such material is distributed on a grand scale, isn’t the need to prosecute more, not less?” said the district attorney, the son of Texas Republican Congressman Brian Babin and a former actor who played one of Jack Black’s antagonists in 2003’s “School of Rock.”

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