Vote brigading

Vote brigading is massively coordinated online voting. It refers to the practice of affecting reviews or scores on websites that feature crowdvoting, such as online stores or review websites, by calling on large numbers of people to submit (often false) 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 of participation bias, which can decrease the reliability of the aggregated score.

Origin

The first known use of "brigade" or brigading in reference to orchestrated negative voting online was a post by blogger Konstantine Thoukydides from the German web forum Toy Town, about a massively downvoted thread by a "downvote brigade".[2]

Prominent examples

  • The online community Reddit, 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 of energy strips, rapper Pitbull was to be sent to an arbitrary Walmart store at a location voted for by visitors of the brand's Facebook page. An organized campaign ensued, with over 70,000 visitors voting for a store at the remote island of Kodiak, Alaska.[5]
  • Gunday, a 2014 Indian film suffered from vote brigading on IMDb 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.[6]
  • Demon, a 2015 film about a groom possessed by an evil spirit the night before his wedding, suffered from vote brigading on IMDB.[1]
  • The Birth of a Nation, a 2016 drama about a slave rebellion in 1831 Virginia, was the target of vote brigading due to the rape charges against the film's director, Nate Parker.[1][7]
  • Ghostbusters, the 2016 female-led reboot of the 1984 comedy by the same name, was a target of vote brigading on IMDb on the day of its release.[1][7][8]
  • Kicks, a 2016 film, suffered from vote brigading.[1]
  • The Promise, a 2016 film about the Armenian Genocide, rapidly received over 80,000 votes on IMDB after only three screenings, many of which were either 1/10 or 10/10.[1][9][10]
  • I Am Not Your Negro, a 2016 film about the history of racism in the US, may have been the target of vote brigading.[7]
  • It has been suggested that the wide disparity between CinemaScore audience scores and film critics' rating and those of Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic users of the 2017 film Star Wars: The Last Jedi may have been due to vote brigading on the latter two.[11]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Raftery, Brian (2016-09-14). "IMDb Voters Are Tanking Indies Before They're Even Released". WIRED. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  2. ↑ "ToyTown: How an online community built around mutual aid is becoming a social wasteland because of hierarchy". A Division by Zer0. 2010-02-26. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  3. ↑ "This week on Reddit—fighting downvote brigades and helping small business". The Daily Dot. 2011-11-11. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  4. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/wiki/faq
  5. ↑ Zimmerman, Neetzan. "The Internet Has Spoken: Pitbull Is Headed to Alaska, And He's Taking Along the Prankster Who Sent Him There". Gawker. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
  6. ↑ Goldenberg, David (1 May 2014). "The Story Behind the Worst Movie on IMDb". Five Thirty Eight. Archived from the original on 11 April 2017. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 "Is 'I Am Not Your Negro' the latest victim of online 'vote brigading'?". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  8. ↑ Hayes, Britt. "'Ghostbusters' Haters Spam IMDb With Low Ratings". ScreenCrush. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  9. ↑ "Armenian Genocide film gets 86,704 IMDb ratings off three screenings". The Independent. 2016-10-25. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  10. ↑ Ihrig, Stefan. "Genocide Denial Goes Viral: 'The Promise' And The IMDB". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-04-18.
  11. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (2017-12-17). "Did Audiences Enjoy 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'? Deciphering Online User Reviews From Exit Polls". Deadline. Retrieved 2017-12-18.

See also

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