Oscars: New Report Points To Twitter Bots Being Used For Zack Snyder Votes
A new report points to Twitter bots being used for Oscar votes in favor of Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League and his recent Netflix film, Army of The Dead.
Earlier this year the Oscars aired on ABC to a flood of controversy. The most obvious was Will Smith slapping host Chris Rock for his comments about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The other controversial though less talked about aspect was the results of a Twitter poll from the Academy Awards for Most Cheer Worthy Moment and Fan Favorite Film of 2021. In both instances, a Zack Snyder film won.
For the Cheer Worthy Moment, Zack Snyder’s Justice League won the online Twitter poll for when The Flash entered The Speed Force. His Netflix film, Army of The Dead won the Fan Favorite Film of 2021. Now, however, it appears both of these Oscar polls were rigged.
According to a report from The Wrap, the majority of those who voted in the two Oscar categories were autonomous web programs. Reports from Tweetbinder, a hashtag analytics tracking tool, reveal that the most active contributors to both polls were made up of these programs that cast thousands of fake votes for Army of the Dead and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. In addition, David Kirsch, a University of Maryland professor who has studied fanbots, agreed that the majority of the pro-Zack Snyder accounts didn’t appear to be made by a human user but stopped short of declaring them bots.
Telescope, the firm hired to run the original Twitter Oscar polls, did not respond to requests for comment. A representative for Zack Snyder also declined to comment on the story. The Academy, however, is still standing by its online poll and will not rule out another Oscar poll for next year.
Here is the synopsis for Zack Snyder’s Justice League:
“In ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE, determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own pasts to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman (Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions.”
Both versions of Justice League are available to stream on HBO Max. Stay tuned for all the latest news surrounding the Twitter Oscar story and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.
Source: The Wrap