On February 3, 2026, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos (left) and Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell testified before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. On Tuesday, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos faced intense questioning from lawmakers during a Senate hearing, which centered on Netflix's proposed $83 billion acquisition of streaming and film production assets from Warner Bros. Discovery. While several senators grilled Sarandos on core issues such as antitrust concerns, labor practices, and consumer pricing, a number of conservative lawmakers shifted the focus to unsubstantiated accusations, alleging that Netflix promotes "woke content" and "transgender ideology." These culture-war attacks mirrored rhetoric from "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) influencers who have urged President Trump to block the deal, signaling that the Biden administration might also use such reasoning to obstruct the merger. (CNN, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, is not part of this transaction.) Senator Eric Schmidt told Sarandos that Netflix has created "the most woke content in history," accusing the streaming giant of "habitually promoting diversity, inclusion, and woke culture," and of "over-sexualizing children." "The vast majority of content on your platform is saturated with woke values, which simply does not align with what American viewers want to watch," Schmidt stated. "Why on earth should we approve this deal and allow you to become the largest player in the global content arena?" Sarandos refuted these allegations, asserting that Netflix has "no political agenda" and offers a diverse range of programming spanning left-wing, right-wing, and centrist viewpoints, which users can easily observe by browsing the platform. Senator Josh Hawley pressed Sarandos on why "a significant portion of Netflix's children's content promotes transgender ideology." When Sarandos called Hawley's claim "inaccurate" and said the platform provides "a wide variety of stories and shows to cater to different tastes," Hawley countered by alleging that nearly half of Netflix's children's programming contains "highly controversial and overly sexualized content." Hawley did not provide a source for his "nearly half" statistic, but his comments closely aligned with an anti-Netflix report published by a conservative media outlet founded by the Heritage Foundation. Distributed to allies ahead of Tuesday's hearing, the report accused Netflix of "engaging in social engineering through entertainment" and reiterated many long-standing right-wing criticisms. In December last year, conservative influencers with ties to the Trump administration portrayed the Netflix-Warner merger as a "monopolistic act," rallying the MAGA base against the deal. MAGA podcast host Benny Johnson claimed the combined company would "pump transgender ideology, racial guilt, and anti-family rhetoric directly into your living room." Despite Sarandos's efforts to clarify the reality of Netflix's content library, such narratives continued to gain traction during the hearing. Senator Ted Cruz also lambasted Netflix as a "left-wing enterprise," citing its multi-year production partnership with Barack and Michelle Obama, and warning that the merger would create "a propaganda machine with greater market power to push a singular political viewpoint." Netflix executives have repeatedly pointed out that it is in the company's financial interest to attract audiences from across the political spectrum, as this helps retain paying subscribers.
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