Petition demands removal of Split from Netflix due to depiction of DID

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Add M. Night Shyamalan's 2017 film SPLIT to the list of art that has come under fire in 2020. I didn't really see this one coming but a social media campaign has been launched to have the thriller removed from Netflix because the story and characters are believed to be offensive to those suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

The hashtag #GetSplitOffNetflix has been created on Twitter with many of its users in support of the idea to remove the film from the streaming platform. The hashtag has already begun to spread worldwide but it's worth noting that SPLIT is not currently streaming on Netflix in the U.S. but it is in other parts of the world. This petition likely hopes to never have the film be available for streaming on the service in the States. You can view the petition on "Change.org."

For those who support the petition, their belief is that the movie misrepresents the way DID works in real life and that it gives the film's viewers a false perception of those who genuinely suffer from the mental disorder. One tweet reads "Split is a movie that has caused many many many plural people & the plural community at large significant harm due to its misrepresentation of both DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) & Plurality in which it demonizes them & more." The user ads in a follow-up tweet that "It demonizes plurality for entertainment when plural people aren't like that. Plural people need support & love." You can check out some of the tweets in support of the campaign below.

SPLIT was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan and (SPOILER ALERT INCOMING!!!!!) serves as a sequel to Shyamalan's 2000 movie UNBREAKABLE. The film follows James McAvoy as a man suffering from DID with 24 split personalities. When the film was released, it was met with great success and served as a mainstream comeback for Shyamalan who had released a series of flops before getting back in the good graces off moviegoers with the smaller success of THE VISIT in 2015. SPLIT was made for a mere $9 million and spent three weeks at number one after opening to $40 million. SPLIT went on to gross $138.2 million at the domestic box office which brought about the 2019 follow-up, GLASS. This particular film brought together the worlds of UNBREAKABLE and SPLIT which further pushed ahead Shyamalan's superhero angle that was introduced in UNBREAKABLE. At the end of the day, SPLIT is less about mental illness and more about a superhero and supervillain origin story that uses DID loosely to represent the superhuman powers possessed by McAvoy's character.

This campaign will sound silly to some but there is no denying that they can be successful, especially during a year where content is being put under a microscope due to current events. That being said, the campaign to banish SPLIT from Netflix has been pretty divisive online with one Twitter user saying "This is absolute nonsense. If we ban every single thing that potentially offends an oppressed community group, we would have nothing left." I've always said that removing art for this very reason is a slippery slope and it's not a notion I agree with. Art can spark a discussion and dissect fact from reality but I still think it's important to be viewed as intended without the threat of being erased as if it never existed.

Do YOU agree with the petition to remove SPLIT from Netflix?