Vote brigading is massively coordinated online voting. It refers to the practice of affecting reviews or scores on websites that featurecrowdvoting, such as online stores or review websites, by calling on large numbers of people to submit reviews, thus boosting or decreasing ratings artificially. This may be done for political reasons; for example, to harm the commercial prospects and credibility of films dealing with controversial or sensitive subjects.[1] Vote brigading is a form ofparticipation bias, which can decrease the reliability of the aggregated score.
Free Republic, an Internet forum for conservative activists, is known for promoting vote brigading in online political polls, known as "FReeping".[2]
The online communityReddit, which sorts its content visibility in a popular voting system, has dealt with censorship issues related to vote brigading.[3][4]
As part of a promotional campaign conducted in 2012 for a brand ofenergy strips, rapperPitbull was to be sent to aWalmart store at a location voted for by visitors of the brand'sFacebook page. An organized campaign ensued, with over 70,000 visitors voting for a store at the remote island ofKodiak, Alaska.[5]
In 2013,4chan engaged in vote brigading to attempt to manipulate a contest being held byBoston radio stationKiss 108, that allowed participants to meetTaylor Swift. While the brigading was successful, the organizers of the contest cancelled the event after learning of the interference.[6]
Gunday, a 2014 Indian film, suffered from vote brigading onIMDb due to a supposed historical inaccuracy in the opening narration of the film. At the time of its release it was the lowest-rated film on IMDb, with a 1.4/10 rating based on more than 44,000 votes, out of which 91 percent gave it just one star.[7]
The 2014faith-based comedySaving Christmas opened to negative reviews, prompting its starKirk Cameron to use social media to ask fans to review the film positively onRotten Tomatoes.[8] Cameron's conspicuous promotion of vote brigading prompted a backlash ofreview bombs on Rotten Tomatoes that later spread to IMDb, resulting in the film having one of the lowest aggregate user ratings on both websites. Cameron attributed the campaign to "haters and atheists" opposed to the film's religious message.[9][10][11]
Demon, a 2015 film about a groom possessed by an evil spirit the night before his wedding, suffered from vote brigading on IMDb.[1]
Kicks, a 2016 indie film about a boy and his two friends embarking on a dangerous mission throughOakland to retrieve a pair ofAir Jordan sneakers that were stolen from him, suffered from vote brigading for unknown reasons. Two other films that shared the same release date asKicks suffered from a similar issue.[1]
It has been suggested that the wide disparity betweenCinemaScore audience scores and film critics' ratings and those of Rotten Tomatoes andMetacritic users of the 2017 filmStar Wars: The Last Jedi may have been due to vote brigading on the latter two.[16]
Captain Marvel received over 58,000 audience ratings, mostly negative, on Rotten Tomatoes within hours of its March 2019 release; for comparison, its highly grossing predecessorAvengers: Infinity War, released the previous year, received fewer audience ratings throughout its entire theatrical run.[17]Captain Marvel was also subject to negative audience reception before its release in response to lead actressBrie Larson's supposed feminist activism.[18]
TikTok's rating onGoogle Play dropped to 1.2 due to the backlash the app received in India. As a result,Google ended up deleting millions of negative reviews.[25]
Racket Boys, a 2021 Korean sports drama series, due to its controversy over episode 5, which portrays Indonesian people as cheaters lacking in sportsmanship;[26] it only received 1.0/10 on IMDb,[27] making it the worst-rated Korean drama ever on the website.
^"Alia Bhatt's Sadak 2 the most disliked trailer on YouTube amid nepotism debate, fans demand justice for Sushant Singh Rajput".Hindustan Times. 13 August 2020. Retrieved1 September 2020.A campaign to make it the most disliked trailer on YouTube was initiated in the days leading up to its unveiling, by fans of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who died by suicide in June. Sushant's fans have been propagating the conspiracy theory that the actor was ostracised by the film industry, most notably by 'insiders', which drove him to suicide.
