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STREAMTOWN — As the war for dominance of the streamiverse continues, Netflix is experimenting with a new feature with the release of the new series “Love, Death & Robots.”
There are 18 episodes in the first season of the animated science-fiction show, which debuted on March 15. But the episodes won’t be presented in the same order for each Netflix user, according to the company.
“We've never had a show like ‘Love, Death & Robots’ before, so we're trying something completely new: presenting four different episode orders,” the company said Tuesday in a tweet.
That’s right — what you might think is the first episode of the show might be the 11th for one of your friends.
The revelation about episode sequencing for the show came after a Twitter user speculated that the order of the episodes changed based on whether Netflix thought you were gay or straight.
Netflix insists that the episode order you see has nothing to do with your gender, ethnicity or sexual identity. Slate reported that the company said the episode order depends on where you’re watching and that the tests vary in length.
We've never had a show like Love, Death & Robots before so we're trying something completely new: presenting four different episode orders. The version you're shown has nothing to do with gender, ethnicity, or sexual identity — info we don't even have in the first place.
— Netflix US (@netflix) March 19, 2019
This isn’t the first time users of the streaming service giant have wondered if Netflix knows more about them than the company is letting on.
Last fall, Netflix faced controversy after users speculated that the marketing images used for certain titles on the service changed depending on the race of the user. At that time, the company denied doing so and insisted that Netflix users aren’t asked for identifying information such as race, gender or ethnicity.
