HBO CEO Admits To Twitter Name Critic Backlash Controversy

TV & Film

Nov 4

HBO had some interesting drama crop up recently, culminating in a lawsuit. Starting in 2020, the current CEO of the platform Casey Bloys had allegedly given employees the order to create fake Twitter (now X) accounts to target negative comments on their original shows; he was the original programming president at the time. During HBO and Max’s press event to discuss the 2024 projected schedule, Bloys was more than forthcoming about the situation.

He explained (via Rolling Stone), "It's very important to me what you all think of the shows. When you think about that, and then think of 2020 and 2021, I'm working from home and doing an unhealthy amount of time scrolling through Twitter.” Too much social media is never a good thing, and the HBO CEO’s situation is a prime example of that. Bloys continued, “And I came up with a very, very dumb idea to vent my frustration.”

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HBO CEO Casey Bloys — Image Source: *Wiki of Thrones*

Bloys indicated the scope of who was targeted, "Obviously, six tweets over a year and a half is not very effective.” He continued with a degree of an apology, “But I do apologize to the people who were mentioned in the leaked emails, texts. Obviously, nobody wants to be part of the story that they have nothing to do with.”

The HBO CEO wrapped up his statement on the subject by broaching his current method of expressing these emotions, “But also, as many of you know, I have progressed over the past couple of years to using DMs. So now when I take issue with something in a review, or take issue with something I see, I see many of you, and many of you are gracious enough to engage with me in a back and forth and I think that is a probably a much healthier way to go about this."

A lawsuit has spawned against HBO that reportedly includes a matter related to the fake social media posts project. The company is standing firm in defense of the CEO and is “not going to comment on select exchanges between programmers and errant tweets.” The overall outcome remains to be seen, though conversations surrounding workplace culture and handling criticism have begun in general.

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