The findings of an internal report commissioned by WarnerMedia claim a large number of fake accounts and online bots helped to fuel the online campaign to release Zack Snyder's Justice League.
After years of fan campaigning, Zack Snyder'sJustice League was released on HBO Max, finally allowing the filmmaker to present his original vision for the film. While the release was touted by many as a win for Snyder's passionate fanbase, a report suggests there was more to the Justice League campaign than meets the eye.
According to the Rolling Stone article, WarnerMedia hired two firms that specialize in tracking inauthentic social media activity to investigate the online SnyderVerse community. According to the reports, at least 13 percent of the accounts that took part in the Snyder Cut of Justice League campaign were deemed fake. According to experts, this is well above the three to five percent that social media sites usually see on any trending topic. Rolling Stone also spoke to several insiders about the campaign and its origins, and some of what is alleged is pretty damning.
The article claims that several sources who spoke to Rolling Stone said that when Snyder was attempting to have producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg's names removed from the film, he confronted an executive in the studio’s post-production department and said that he would "destroy them on social media." The article goes on to claim that Snyder was instrumental in fueling the heated online campaign, and one source even refers to the director as "Lex Luthor wreaking havoc." Another source claimed that Snyder and actor Ray Fisher, who plays Cyborg in the film, were working together to discredit Johns and Berg and leverage fan outrage towards the studio. It should be noted that Snyder has called these allegations “totally untrue" while Fisher's reps did not respond to multiple requests from Rolling Stone to comment.
Fake accounts and online bots have been instrumental in many online campaigns, including everything from The Snyder Cut to the 2016 Presidential Election. Still, the level at which they were used for Zack Snyder's Justice League seems unprecedented. Toxic fandoms are also nothing new in the world of big franchise movies and TV shows, but the level to which some fans were committed to the ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign was truly shocking.
However, since many of these claims will be difficult, if not impossible to corroborate, it's unlikely to change the overall public perception of The SnyderVerse fandom in any significant way. For some, this online movement will always be remembered as a passionate plea from fans and an embattled artist, and for others, it will be remembered as a toxic online harassment campaign that targeted everyone from film critics to the top-level executives at Warner Bros.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is now streaming on HBO Max.
Source: Rolling Stone