The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has altered its rating system for Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, as reported by Variety.
The American entertainment publication said IMDb had found “unusual voting activity” following a racist backlash after the casting of a black actress as Ariel.
The film, which was released in May, has allegedly become the latest target of “review bombing”. This is when users with multiple accounts flood a production with negative reviews or use bots to create new ones.
Since its release, The Little Mermaid had at the time of writing received 41,000 user ratings on IMDb. While the film has earned a positive 7/10 average score, more than 15,000 of the ratings are 1 star.
Variety reported that IMDb had placed a notice on the film’s ratings page. It said that 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.”
The “unusual activity” has prompted allegations of racism against the film’s casting of Halle Bailey, a black singer and actress, in the lead role.
When Disney first released the trailer for the film, it garnered more than two million dislikes on YouTube and countless derogatory comments. Some social media users started a #NotMyAriel hashtag (despite YouTube removing the dislike counter, the numbers are still available through an extension).
Addressing the backlash earlier this year, Bailey told The Face: “As a black person, you just expect it and it’s not really a shock any more.
“When [Chloe Bailey and I] first signed to Parkwood, [Beyoncé] was always like: ’I never read my comments. Don’t ever read the comments.’ Honestly, when the teaser came out, I was at the D23 Expo and I was so happy. I didn’t see any of the negativity.”
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IMDB added: “Not all votes have the same impact (or ‘weight’) on the final rating. When unusual voting activity is detected, an alternate weighting calculation may be applied in order to preserve the reliability of our system.”
Allegations of racist “review bombing” also surfaced last year. IMDb owner Amazon introduced a 72-hour vetting period for user reviews of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which faced backlash for casting people of colour as members of Middle-earth.
