Just Before A Congressional Interview, Iger Laid Off Problematic Staff to Save Face

When Disney CEO Bob Iger announced earlier this year that the Walt Disney Company would lay off more than 7,000 employees, it sounded like the typical corporate move. Use the layoffs to boost a struggling stock, and Wall Street would love it. But Iger used the layoffs to settle some old scores, and now we’re learning that there was an even deeper plan behind Iger’s moves.

During the layoffs, Iger cut the entire meta division from the company. That was the brainchild of his predecessor, former Disney CEO Bob Chapek. Iger also used the layoffs to rid the company of a few of his enemies and some people who were still loyal to Chapek. But Iger also used the layoffs in an attempt to get Congress off his back.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, just weeks before Iger and other Disney executives were due to meet with a Congressional Delegation about their concerns over Disney’s relationship with China, Disney laid off more than 300 workers in their Beijing office. The Beijing team worked on Disney Plus in China to “offer viewers. personalized recommendations,” however, the team also had access to customer data in America.

The House Select Committee on the Communist Chinese Party, led by Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI), met with Iger, Apple’s Tim Cook, and other Hollywood executives in early April. Among the many topics they discussed were artificial intelligence, copyright infringement, and human rights abuses in China.

According to the Journal, Disney lawyers raised concerns that allowing the workers in Beijing to access U.S. customer’s data would raise red flags with the committee. But the workers there had access to that data for years. The Walt Disney Company used these layoffs in an attempt to squash any concerns that the congresspeople had before they even arrived for the interview.

Congress has long raised concerns with the tech industry about how much information China could receive from websites and apps, including the personal data of American citizens. Leaders across America have started to ban TikTok on government devices and for its citizens. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

During his first tenure as CEO, Bob Iger has prided himself on having opened up the Chinese market for Disney’s films and theme parks. However, that relationship has since cooled. China has pressured Disney to censor several shows on Disney Plus, including The Simpsons. Disney and Marvel Studios also released Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), which flopped in China. 

This year, Disney received permission to release The Little Mermaid (2023) and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 (2023) in China, but those movies also flopped.

Shortly after the firings, certain aspects of Disney’s streaming services stopped working in the Chinese market. Targeted advertising and show recommendations did not function, and at one point, all Walt Disney Company streaming services stopped working altogether.

There has always been concern about what information the Chinese could get from an American phone, but recently, America’s relationship with China has cooled. President Joe Biden referred to Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping a “dictator” this summer. Since then, relations have been tense between the two countries.

This puts the Walt Disney Company and Robert Iger in a difficult position as they would like to continue to release their movies in the second-largest country in the World.

We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.