During this year's Oscars, the Academy attempted to increase viewership by allowing movie fans to cast their vote on social media for "Oscars Fan Favorite" and "Oscars Cheer Moment." Both were mostly meaningless as no actual awards were handed out, but two Zack Snyder-directed movies walked away with the wins: Zack Snyder's Justice League and Army of the Dead.
The latter nabbing "Oscars Fan Favorite" came as a big surprise, especially after speculation that the category was only actually created to make up for Spider-Man: No Way Home being snubbed.
Regardless, The Wrap is reporting that the voting system may have been rigged thanks to Twitter bots putting their support behind Snyder. They've shared data from a hashtag analytics tracking tool and found that "the most active contributors to both polls were autonomous web programs," which "cast thousands of fake votes" for the popular filmmaker's two movies.
While not definitive, there are other indications that the vote was rigged by some #ReleaseTheSnyderCut and #RestoreTheSnyderVerse fans, including an odd jump in the number of votes. Neither the company that ran the poll nor Snyder's representatives have responded to requests for comments, though the Academy plans to stand by the results.
This not only highlights the problem with a Twitter poll like this one, but also the extreme lengths Snyder's fans are willing to go in their support of the director behind those early DCEU movies.
Do you think Zack Snyder's Justice League and Army of the Dead were deserving winners?
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