In a testy dialogue with AT&T over the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) recent net neutrality ruling, the web content giant Netflix has enlisted the help of the president,
Mediaite reports.
No, not Barack Obama, but the voice of its "House of Cards" protagonist, Frank Underwood, who seems to be speaking out in his wily tone via the web series' Netflix Twitter account in a pushback against the communications company's own statements amid the net neutrality ruling's fallout, Mediaite said.
The tweet-off began after Netflix CFO David Wells had some second thoughts about supporting net neutrality as a "non-regulated solution," only to have it emerge after the recent FCC ruling as what Mediaite called a "Title II classification that pushed it over the top."
That regret was evident in
comments to The Wall Street Journal, which described Netflix's remarks post-ruling as "lobbyist remorse."
"Were we pleased it pushed to Title II? Probably not," Wells said in remarks made last week to Morgan Stanley's Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference. "We were hoping there might be a non-regulated solution."
AT&T quickly pointed out Wells' company's disconnect in a statement from its lobbying arm's Senior Vice President Jim Cicconi: "Netflix has spun a lot of tales during this FCC proceeding. But it's awfully hard to believe their CFO would go into a major investor conference and misspeak on an issue supposedly so crucial to their future."
That led to the Netflix Twitter response, using its hit series' account and memes of the show's President Underwood and his wife, in reply, noting, "when you write about presidents, people pay attention."
"@ATTPublicPolicy AT&T's lobbyist calling out lobbyists? Attack of candor, indeed," tweeted Netflix via its "House of Cards" handle.
A couple of subsequent tweets added: "Ready for Battle" with a photo of Underwood and his wife that was captioned, "You're crooked,"
Mediaite noted.
"I feel good to be on the offensive," another tweet followed.
Mediaite noted real life's bleed into the political web series, writing, "this could very well foreshadow a Frank Underwood scheme to subtweet his rivals next season."