this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/28397398

The suspension triggered strong responses across social media and beyond. Hashtags like #CancelDisneyPlus and #CancelHulu trended as users shared screenshots of their canceled subscriptions.

With cancellations surging, many subscribers reported technical issues. On Reddit’s r/Fauxmoi, one post read, “The page to cancel your Hulu/Disney+ subscription keeps crashing.”

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[–] otter@lemmy.ca 251 points 3 days ago (9 children)

crashes

Maybe, but could it also be an intentional dark pattern to make it difficult to cancel?

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 93 points 3 days ago

Anytime I want to cancel something and the company makes it difficult I just cancel the credit card side of it. Sod them. That's what they get if they want to play silly buggers.

[–] nalinna@lemmy.world 45 points 3 days ago

They use AWS and specifically design their software to be able to dynamically scale, ever since Wandavision crashed their playback.

Is it possible that they never entertained having to make their cancellation page scalable? Sure. Is it more likely that they intentionally haven't made it scalable? Yes.

[–] Lembot_0004@discuss.online 27 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Maybe. But more probably it was just fast written and untested.

[–] kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 3 days ago

Sure. It's a design flaw. Yep. Nothing to see here.

[–] MajinBlayze@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Could also be a decision to limit how much the service scales as more people use it. It's not like they are incentivised to throw a bunch of hardware at the problem when the problem in question is "people are unable to leave the platform"

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 113 points 3 days ago (2 children)

crashing, or DISNEY+ trying to stem the cancellation, until they can reorient thier positions.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 46 points 3 days ago

No it's definitely crashing. Definitely nothing happening here, they're not worried, or panicking, or anything. Everything Is Fine I Wouldn't Say There's A Problem At All. EVERYTHING IS ABSOLUTELY FINE. IT'S FINE

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[–] SpazOut@lemmy.world 82 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Call me a cynic, but engineering some rate limit on a cancellation page suits them rather well

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 20 points 3 days ago

Yeah it’s not like services make the cancellation process super difficult. It’s like mafia style extortion. They make this type of stuff so difficult, I like to waste their time too, and make sure it involves wasting so many of their employees time, which they have to pay for.

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[–] Floodedwomb@lemmy.world 64 points 3 days ago

I canceled mine and am now sending that money as a monthly contribution to Palestinian aid.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 60 points 3 days ago (2 children)

“Crashes”? How convenient.

[–] howrar@lemmy.ca 26 points 3 days ago

The cancellation page specifically. Everything else is fine.

[–] Bongles@lemmy.zip 17 points 3 days ago (12 children)

On one hand, could be a "crash". On the other hand, tons of websites break when they get a little extra traffic.

Side tangent, seems odd to me this is still a thing. Most company websites aren't hosted on premises, so do these services like (i assume) AWS not scale for when there's traffic? Squarespace has been advertising for years that it will scale up if there's extra traffic. I've never tested it but still.

[–] Kissaki@feddit.org 13 points 3 days ago

You have to design for scalability. Bottlenecks may be wherever. Even if their virtual server CPU and RAM can scale up, other stuff may be bottlenecks. Maybe the connection to the DB. Maybe the DB is elsewhere and doesn't scale. Can't really reasonably guess from the outside.

Mass cancellation is not usually a thing they would design around bottle-necks. It also doesn't add value to them.

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[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 56 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I canceled my Hulu/Disney+ subscription two days ago. A long time ago, I had an absolute boycott on Disney because I hated their hypocrisy when it came to copyright law. They tried to extend their copyrights indefinitely, even though the majority of their IPs came from the public domain. They were like a dog who only knows how to fetch the ball, but won't ever release it.

When Disney acquired Pixar and was the American distributor for Studio Ghibli, and bought Star Wars, and distributes Marvel, at some point I eventually relented and stopped my boycott. I stopped caring as much about hypocrisy, in general. But never again. It was obviously a mistake to ever give them money. They will never get anything from me again.

[–] Jaysyn@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Same here, except I stopped giving a shit about Marvel & Star Wars when they bought them.

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[–] Dionysus@leminal.space 56 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Cancel, buy some rum with the money you saved, and sail the high seas.

  • Apple: Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Tap your Apple ID name, then Subscriptions. Select Disney+ and tap Cancel Subscription.
  • Google Play: Open the Google Play Store. Tap your profile icon, then Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions. Tap Disney+ and Cancel subscription.
  • Roku: Press the Home button on your Roku remote. Highlight the Disney+ app and press the Star button. Select Manage subscription and click Cancel Subscription.
  • Amazon: Go to https://www.amazon.com/appstoresubscriptions. Find Disney+ and click Actions, then Cancel Subscription.

Their phone number is on their page... (You don't seriously accept phone numbers directly from social media do you? Check the source!) Contact Us | Disney+ Help Center https://help.disneyplus.com/contact-us/account-billing?target

[–] krakenx@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

Do it from their website (settings then account)so that you can fill out the exit survey and tell them why.

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[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 52 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Consider taking the money you save and using it to donate to npr and pbs

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[–] joan@lemmy.world 52 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Sad that all we can do to prevent literal fascism is unsubscribing from a streaming service

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 26 points 2 days ago

Let's not talk as if it's all we can do; it's one action amongst many. Besides, let's not forget that these companies would 1000% be in favor of democracy if they thought it was profitable. They're fascists, but if their ideals hurt their bottom line, they'll change their tune, because they have shareholders to appease.

[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 25 points 3 days ago

Let’s be realistic: not preventing, more like protesting

[–] GladiusB@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

They only care about money. Hit em where it hurts.

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

It's not all you can do but it's one of the easier things you can try

[–] Lucky_777@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

Talking with your wallet is the best thing you can do, honestly. Against any company.

[–] Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 days ago

Unintended consequence of capitalism: all the eggs in one basket makes for a much easier target lol

[–] Ydna@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Yeah, I don't have a subscription, so I guess I'll just shrug and upvote 🤷‍♂️

[–] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 47 points 2 days ago (7 children)

MAGA hates Disney because of their current movies perceived "wokeness" so the big brained executives decided to piss of the Left as well by attacking the 1st Amendment and bowing down to the Right. Big brain move there.

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[–] udon@lemmy.world 43 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] Luouth@lemmy.world 34 points 3 days ago (10 children)

Walt Disney used to attend meetings of the German American Bund. They have a long and deep relationship with fascists.

Like many are saying, don't give them your money back if they bring Jimmy back. Hopefully, Jimmy knows how well he could do away from the influences of such people, and he'll say "nah thanks"

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 16 points 3 days ago

they also donate heavily to the GOP, so they are partially responsible for getting themselves in this situation.

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[–] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 31 points 2 days ago (14 children)
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[–] DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Or they crashed it when they saw how many were trying to quit

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[–] Highlandcow@feddit.uk 29 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I never subscribed as they literally filmed Mulan outside a concentration camp in certain bits and thanked the CCP in the credits

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 11 points 3 days ago (3 children)

And here I thought this movie couldn't get any worse. I wasn't able to continue watching after about 11 minutes due to the story feeling boring and forced.

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[–] ratten@lemmings.world 26 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Please tell your friends about free streaming sites: https://hydrahd.io/

We need to work together to change this culture.

[–] SolSerkonos@piefed.social 10 points 3 days ago (4 children)
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[–] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago

Remember to no only tell your friends but also keep the boycott going even if they bring back Kimmel's show.

Per Deadline:

Still, according to another well-placed source, while some senior staff are expressing disappointment in how it all went down, “it is in no way widespread”.

They have not learned a single lesson here, keep boycotting and I'll be willing to help with anyone who'd like to get a docker based media server going so you can protest while still watching the content that the creative people stuck contractually at Disney are making.

[–] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 23 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Wish I could cancel but I was never a subscriber to begin with.

Stop giving money to those facsists-friendly business. Use stremio, and begin by stopping to watch stupid american content. Don't use Amazon, they hate you, people where just fine just a few years ago, before all that crap. We are legions, we could destroy their entire economy within 48 hours if we really wanted.

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[–] drath@lemmy.world 23 points 3 days ago

The classic card payment and subscription model is actually insane. You literally have to beg companies to stop taking money from you. Good thing it is changing with more modern payment systems - you literally just stop paying for services you don't need and it's on them to stop providing them to you. Nothing is ever charged off my account without an explicit action from me.

[–] philosloppy@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (8 children)

it's easy to do something in the heat of the moment when passions are running high (and your favorite show is in-between seasons) but let's see where the boycott is in 6+ months after everything has cooled down and about 300 other new little fires from the current admin have come and gone from the headlines. That's the true measure of these kinds of "low temp" protests.

[–] Ordinary_Person@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Even if they get back two thirds of the people who quit while the other third have discovered "other" ways to get their Disney content, that's still a third of a loss of revenue. A small dent is better than no dent. And whether the website crashed because of all the people quitting or they intentionally crashed it to prevent people from quitting, that means its a significant amount of people, and a third of that is still significant to them.

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[–] Senseless@feddit.org 20 points 3 days ago

Good. Finally some people are taking action, even if it might be a whee bit uncomfortable.

[–] SirMaple__@lemmy.ca 17 points 3 days ago
[–] Mrkawfee@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago

I cancelled my Disney sub when the Gaza genocide first started. Glad its catching on. Disney is run by assholes.

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