Op-Ed: The Studios Aren't Ready For Social Media Activists in This Strike

SAG-AFTRA has officially called a strike alongside the WGA. This is the first time these groups have gone on strike together in 63 years.

Studios entered into 11th hour, federally mediated discussions with SAG-AFTRA in order to try to stave off an incoming strike, but word from the inside was that those were mostly for show, as the studios had already determined that they were not willing to negotiate – especially on the crucial point of AI.

Studios Let It Leak That They Wanted Writers To Lose their Homes – And It Backfired Big Time

One particular quote from a Deadline article has been making the rounds, which states that the studios are hoping that writers and actors begin running out of money and losing their homes – “a cruel but necessary evil.”

(Necessary for who, exactly?)

The article has since been updated to add that an official spokesperson for the AMPTP said that “these anonymous people are not speaking on behalf of the AMPTP or member companies, who are committed to reaching a deal and getting our industry back to work.”

However, the chatter on social media says that actors already believed that studios had “leaked” these ice-cold quotations on purpose as a scare tactic, and are now simply backpedaling because they didn’t realize what a negative public response they’d create.

@DivorceMinder – whose Twitter handle, it’s worth noting, is currently HollywoodIsRunBySociopaths – mocked the AMPTP’s poor choice of strategy, saying:

“We thought we’d scare the writers, we miscalculated, their resolve is now at DEFCON 1 and we’re afraid every restaurant in LA will do something to our food.”

We thought we’d scare the writers, we miscalculated, their resolve is now at DEFCON 1 and we’re afraid every restaurant in LA will do something to our food.

— HollywoodIsRunBySociopaths (@DivorceMinder) July 12, 2023

This miscalculation on the part of the studios points out what seems like a massive blind spot in their plan to wear down the resolve of the writers and actors: They have not accounted for social media activism.

Did the Studio Heads Forget About the Power of Social Media Outrage?

This isn’t like the last few major strikes, in which the public only got its insider information from the select few publications available: Social media has made it possible for those inside the efforts to talk about what it’s like for them, as well as raise awareness of what’s really going on.

Ordinarily, a few interested parties might have read or heard what the studios said in that article, and there may have been a bit of a racket about it, but these quotations went viral almost instantly: Hundreds of people, actors and unaffiliated users alike, responded to screenshots of the quotation on Twitter, condemning them for their scorched earth tactics.

For example, Ferdinand Kingsley said:

Yum yum yum such utter contempt for the people who create the studios’ content from out of their brains (and whom they have always hated and wished they could do without)!!

Yum yum yum such utter contempt for the people who create the studios’ content from out of their brains (and whom they have always hated and wished they could do without)!! #WGAStrike #WGAStrong pic.twitter.com/ghLbGAGi8f

— Ferdinand Kingsley (@ferdosnandos) July 12, 2023

What’s more, this is the era of activism, the masses are more than practiced at enacting grassroots efforts and putting pressure on corporations. As early as yesterday, calls began starting for people to cancel their streaming services to send a clear message to studios that the public can see how they’re treating the people who make the art they love, and they’re not having it.

One Twitter user, @DoubleJungStan, said “Just canceled my disney plus with this explanation!!!!” and accompanied it with a photo of the “Other reason” field in the Disney+ subscription cancellation box, which read:

I am canceling my subscription in solidarity with the writers strike. TELL THE SUITS TO PAY THEIR F***ING TALENT AND WRITERS!!!!!”

Just canceled my disney plus with this explanation!!!! https://t.co/FZag6RFeHn pic.twitter.com/xKsHchBc4h

— 🕷P is Spiderpilled🕷 (@DoubleJungStan) July 12, 2023

It’s at this point that I would like to wonder aloud is how, exactly, the studios imagine they are going to win this one. This is not 2008, and public opinion is now farther removed from their side than ever before. The average person is far more likely to be educated about unions and how they function as a check in our employment system, and anti-corporate sentiment is incredibly high.

According to the same article, the studios are forcing this strike because they are afraid that if they do not, they will be giving the unions too much power, and every contract negotiation cycle will end in a strike, but they don’t really have much basis for these fears – that is to say, not as much basis as the writers and actors, who simply want a more fair cut of residuals and for the studios to promise not to replace them with AI.

I’m not sure what rock these people are living under, but I am sure that nobody in either guild actually wanted to strike. They seem far too ready to cast aside the notion that these are actual people’s lives and passions they’re playing with in the name of their precious business deal. There are not as many sympathizers for them as they think there are, and they’re about to find out exactly how many people find their iciness despicable and inhuman.

Good luck weaseling your way out of this one, studio execs. And good luck eating out at any restaurants in LA.