Black Mirror season 6 premiered on Netflix last week and its first episode, titled “Joan is Awful,” has sent viewers into a spiral. The episode of Black Mirror, which is a meta commentary on Netflix and also the internet’s insistence on engaging with negativity, has seen many wondering if the Netflix terms and conditions are as broad in reality as they appear in the episode. Though the answer is “No,” Netflix has taken things to their next logical step and rolled out a viral marketing campaign for Black Mirror, one that includes some wild terms & conditions and which has seen them convert their social media profiles to “Streamberry,” the fictional streaming service in “Joan is Awful.” Spoilers will follow.
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In the first episode of Black Mirror‘s sixth season, Schitt’s Creek star Annie Murphy plays a woman named Joan, whose daily life quickly becomes a new TV series on Streamberry down to every private detail that she might want kept a secret. After it begins to threaten her personal life, Joan seeks legal action but her according to her attorney, Streamberry (aka Netflix) is “allowed” to do this because of the Terms and Conditions that Joan agreed to when she first signed up for the service. As a result of agreeing to it, Streamberry can make a show out of her life and she can’t do anything about it.
Now things have gotten even more meta. Netflix changed their Twitter account to all Streamberry, including a new profile photo and banner image. They’ve also rolled out a link to streamberry.tv, a site that allows users to upload their own image and name to create their own personal version of “Joan is Awful.”
Naturally, the terms & conditions drew the eye of some users, who noticed that be agreeing to them, users grant Netflix “the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive right to record, depict, and/or portray you and use, and grant to others the right, but not the obligation, to record, depict, and/or portray you and use, your actual or simulated likeness, name, photograph, voice, actions, etc. in connection with the development, production, distribution, exploitation, advertising, promotion and publicity of this Experience, in all media, now known and later devised, and all languages, formats, versions, and forms related to such Experience without compensation to you or any other individual, unless prohibited by law.”
In short, if you make a version of “Joan is Awful” with your name and your photo, you might end up on a billboard or on an Instagram post somewhere. Is it as sinsiter as what is seen in the Black Mirror episode? Maybe, but it seems like it’s just for ads. At least for now.
