Texas grand jury indicts Netflix over Cuties

The streaming service faces state felony charges for lewd visual material depicting a child, according to an indictment. Texas state Rep. Matt Schaefer, a Republican, on Tuesday tweeted an image of the Sept. 23 grand jury filing in a Tyler County court. It said Cuties “appeals to the prurient interest in sex, and has no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

Was this a surprise? Netflix angered its fans and lost subscribers when it released the film in September. It depicts young girls dancing in a sexually suggestive way. U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., sent a letter co-signed by 33 other members of Congress last month asking Attorney General William Barr to prosecute the company, which has not commented on the indictment.

Dig deeper: Read Megan Basham’s analysis in Muse of Cuties and the backlash to the film.