According to a new report, Zack Snyder's fan-voted Oscar wins for JusticeLeague and ArmyOfTheDead might have been aided by bots.
The fan-fueled wins for Zack Snyder at the 2022 Oscars may have been rigged by bots. The 94th Academy Awards were a controversial one for a number of reasons, from the decision to cut 8 awards from the live broadcast to instead making new fan-voted categories.
The fan-voted results took many people by surprise, as the two categories of Best Cheer Moment and Fan Favorite Movie of 2021 did not go to Spider-Man: No Way Home like many suspected. Instead, they went to Zack Snyder's Justice League and Army of the Dead, respectively. Snyder took to social media to celebrate the double win, as it was the first time any film of his had won any type of Academy Award. The awards also mean that both films are now considered Oscar winners on sites like IMDb.
There has been no word on if the Academy will continue with the Fan Favorite and Cheer Moment awards for next year's ceremony, but if the report does turn out to be true, there are certainly going to be some changes to the voting system. It is a likely possibility that the polls could be manipulated, as it was reported earlier that Camila Cabello fans were voting in high numbers to push the singer's Amazon film Cinderella into the lead in the Fan Favorite movie poll.
This is not the first time bots have been able to rewrite the narrative of a film in the eyes of the public. It was reported that nearly half of The Last Jedi's backlash was political trolling. Coordinated review bombs for films like Captain Marvel forced Rotten Tomatoes to disable the audience poll on a film until after they were released in theaters.