The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has changed its rating system for Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” after it became the latest target for “review bombing” — a practice in which production is flooded with negative reviews by users who have multiple accounts or use bots to post reviews. “The Little Mermaid” has received 41,000 user ratings on IMDb since its premiere. While the film has a favorable 7.0 (weighted) average rating, almost 39% of the ratings are 1 star, the lowest possible option.
The site’s “rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title. “To preserve the reliability of our rating system, an alternate weighting calculation has been applied.” This message has been employed before by IMDb in the cast of other atypical user score patterns.
While the FAQ section of IMDb does not go into great detail about how the company generates a weighted score, it does mention that “not all votes have the same impact (or ‘weight’) on the final rating.” When anomalous voting activity is observed, an alternate weighting calculation may be used to maintain the system’s reliability.”
IMDb officials are yet to comment on the controversy
IMDb representatives were not immediately available for comment. “The Little Mermaid” has been the target of racist criticism for several years now, dating back to when Halle Bailey, a Black actor, was first announced to be cast as Ariel.
Bailey told Variety last year that her family came together to support her when the #NotMyAriel hashtag gained traction online following the release of the footage. Bailey stated that her grandparents shared their experiences with discrimination throughout their lives. Several companies have sought to combat “review bombing” in the past. Last year, IMDb owner Amazon instituted a 72-hour screening process for user evaluations of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” which faced racist backlash for casting people of color as Middle-earth residents.