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- ABC's decision to suspend "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" has been met with calls to boycott the brand.Many people are pledging to cancel their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions in protest — and some are following through.While past boycotts of Tesla and Target have shown signs of financial impact, it's not clear if the same will be true for Disney.
As people online debate cancel culture after Jimmy Kimmel's suspension, some Disney critics are hitting the literal cancel button.
Those angered by Disney-owned ABC's decision to take Kimmel off the air are turning to a new pressure point to express their anger at the House of Mouse: canceling their streaming subscriptions.
Google searches for "cancel Disney Plus" and "cancel Hulu" have spiked in the days since the network's suspension of Kimmel, whose comments about Charlie Kirk's suspected shooter drew threats from FCC chair Brendan Carr.
Calls for a boycott against Disney have spread across social media — and some Disney and Hulu subscribers told Business Insider they're putting their money where their mouth is.
Gary and Cheryl Anderson called from their honeymoon. They canceled their Disney streaming bundle on Thursday over concerns of "freedom of speech," Cheryl said.
"We don't even watch Jimmy Kimmel at all," Gary said. "Things that are supposed to be thought of as a given as it relates to American life, those things are being constantly trampled down."
Gary was especially dissatisfied with ESPN, which is majority owned by Disney. He watched it every morning, but when Trump was elected, it became "a negative way to start my day," he said. Kimmel was their final straw, he said.
The Andersons have a long history of boycotts. Gary said that they stopped going to Publix and Papa John's over political issues. "We vote with our dollars," he said.
They also said they wouldn't be resubscribing, even if ABC put Kimmel back on the air. Cheryl quoted Maya Angelou: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them."
David Axe canceled his Disney+ and Hulu subscription on Wednesday. He's not much of a Kimmel fan — "Jimmy Kimmel's not funny, but that's not the point," he told Business Insider — but was disappointed in Disney's actions.
"If Disney's going to cave to Trump, then Disney doesn't get my money," he said. "It's not a lot of money, but that's the power that I have over Disney, as tiny as it is."
Axe thought it was bad business for Disney, too. He's a former Forbes writer who has since moved to Substack. Comedians like Kimmel didn't need Disney and could easily go independent, he said.
Axe said his friends are also canceling their Disney subscriptions. What would get him to resubscribe? "Is Disney going to un-cancel Jimmy Kimmel?" Axe asked. "Do the right thing. Let a comedian be funny."
Shae Noble, a Disney superfan, told Business Insider that she's planning to cancel her family's Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions and trips to Disney parks after ABC suspended Kimmel, whom she's a fan of. Disney also owns Hulu.
"It's just shocking to see freedom of speech be stifled in our country directly from the president," Noble said.
Shae Noble
Noble said that while she still loves Disney, she's putting her fandom on the back burner to send a message to the company. Boycotts against Target and Tesla appear to have made an impact, she said, and she's emboldened by social media posts of other Disney adults doing the same.
"Our politicians just aren't listening; corporations aren't listening," Noble said.
On Instagram, posts on the topic are filled with comments about how users want to "stand for something" and "boycott all Disney movies." Multiple Reddit threads about canceling Disney+ have over 1,000 comments.
"Remember how we sank Target? Let's show Disney and its affiliates too!" one Instagram commenter wrote.
Some social media users said that Disney+'s cancellation page crashed the day after the Kimmel announcement. Others posted proof of their cancellations, using an optional text box for the reason behind the decisions as an opportunity to speak out against Disney. One X user wrote that they canceled because the company "caved to MAGA!"; another said they wrote "Jimmy Kimmel."
Actor Tatiana Maslany, who starred in Disney+'s "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law," urged her 512,000 followers on Instagram to "cancel your @disneyplus @hulu @espn subscriptions!"
The chatter online has also translated to an increase in people Googling instructions on how to do so.
Search volume for "cancel disney plus" reached hit a 12-month high at 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, according to Google Trends, and continues to be elevated. Terms like "boycott disney plus" and "boycott disney" are also listed as break-out searches on Google. Searches for "cancel hulu" also soared, per Google Trends.
Boycotts may go beyond streaming
This isn't the first time Disney has faced backlash and boycott calls.
Consumers on both sides of the aisle have tried to lead boycotts of the company, often to little lasting success.
Some conservatives protested the company over its reaction to Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act, often referred to as the "Don't Say Gay" law. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in an interview at the time that the company hadn't seen any impact on park attendance. Pro-Palestinian groups made calls to boycott Disney after featuring Israeli actor Gal Gadot in "Snow White."
While Disney's stock is down around 2.4% since the market closed on Wednesday, the day ABC announced Kimmel's suspension, it's not clear yet if the boycott calls will have a material impact on the business.
The boycott calls could extend beyond digital subscription cancellations and into Disney's physical offerings.
A protest organized by the Writers Guild of America West drew hundreds of picketers outside of Disney Studios on Thursday, leading the company to eventually close its main studio gate.
Noble's annual pass to Disney World is up for renewal. She said she was already "on the fence" about renewing it, she said, and the Kimmel suspension made her decision not to renew an easy one. She said her husband, a fellow Disney fan, is also planning on letting his lapse when it's up in May.
Instead, Noble said she and her family may visit Universal's parks, Six Flags, or Greece.
"We might just have to start doing more grown-up trips," Noble said.
Not all Disney fans are on the boycott train.
Lucas Lozano said he loves Kimmel, but his affinity for Disney runs deeper. He believes the company is "playing it safe" to appease the FCC, though he expects the late-night host to eventually return from his suspension after making an apology.
Either way, Lozano, who said he had his honeymoon at the Disney parks, won't fall out of love with Disney.
"Not really anything would change my fandom," Lozano said.
Do you work for Disney or have a story to share? Contact the reporters from a non-work email and device at hchandonnet@businessinsider.com and jfaris@businessinsider.com.
