A lawsuit was lodged against the giant OTT platform, Netflix by a family, whose teenage daughter had committed suicide after watching the Netflix Original series ’13 Reasons Why’ (2017). The lawsuit was filed in August, 2021 and it was alleged by John Herdon, the father of the teenager, that Netflix has failed to adequately warn the viewers from suggestive contents in the series. According to him, the series depicts such heinous events that provoked the teenager to commit suicide.
But, on Tuesday, January 11, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against Netflix. The US district judge, Yvonne Gonzaler Rogers pointed that Netflix cannot be sued over recommending the show to viewers. She said, “This is a tragic case. But ultimately, I don’t think that it survives.” Further Netflix has been cautioned to put restrictions on contents and to put censorship on creative works.
The lawyers of Netflix commented about the lawsuit that, “Creators obligated to shield certain viewers from expressive works depicting suicide would inevitably censor themselves to avoid the threat of liability. This would dampen the vigour and limit the variety of public debate.”
It’s been reported by The Hollywood Reporter that, Netflix has removed the original three-minutes-long suicide scene from the series ’13 Reasons Why’s season one.
