Oscars to include Fan-Favorite Film via Twitter

[Darker45]

It is being reported that the upcoming 94th Academy Awards will be having a new addition. One of which is the Top Fan-Voted Film.

"Beginning this Monday, Twitter users will get to vote on their favorite films that were released in 2021 — regardless of if the film was nominated for an Oscar — using the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite. The film that receives the most fan votes by March 3 will be recognized during the awards broadcast on March 27."^[1]

Furthermore, "for both the fan-favorite film and cheer moment campaigns, Twitter users will be able to tweet out their submissions up to 20 times a day."^[Ibid.]

I was thinking of the gambling implication of this. What if somebody places a huge bet, say, a million or two, on a particular film and then activates all kinds of bots and thousands of fake Twitter accounts that could spam the platform of votes 20 times a day every single day from the beginning of voting until the end? In other words, is this open for manipulation?

[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/oscars-twitter-2022-1235092124/

[Coin_trader]

I believe only few bookmaker offering this kind of special offer. Yes this kind of Social media voting is very prone to manipulation due to the existence of Bots and each account twitter doesn't need to be verify so anyone can create multiple account to vote.

But I doubt that Casino will include this kind of offer since this is very risky on there side. Maybe they will only include betting the traditional bet option they are offering.

[Wexnident]

I was thinking of the gambling implication of this. What if somebody places a huge bet, say, a million or two, on a particular film and then activates all kinds of bots and thousands of fake Twitter accounts that could spam the platform of votes 20 times a day every single day from the beginning of voting until the end? In other words, is this open for manipulation?

I think it's possible for the Oscars committee to communicate with the Twitter tech team to handle the data so that any malicious or suspected bot activity involved would get handled manually? Cause if not, then yea I'd have to agree, manipulation would be rather obvious at some point and would probably kill the purpose of the fan-favorite voting system. Might as well remove it again tbh. That, or gambling would never really be connected anymore with it. If manipulation was obvious, I don't think people would indulge on it anw.

[madnessteat]

As practice shows, even blockchain-based social networks are susceptible to manipulation. Of course Twitter does not have sufficient protection against bots, so it does not make sense to organize voting through this platform because the results will not be reliable. If we should do voting, it should be on a blockchain with a pair of keys tied to a person's identity and the ability to verify each vote.

[Slow death]

well if we look at that point you mentioned there would definitely be manipulation (but it wouldn't be that efficient) but many people would vote even if someone with a lot of money created a lot of fake accounts that person would probably not win in the end they would just be spending a lot of money unnecessarily

[traderethereum]

That possibility can happen to Twitter users because they can use many ways to win the vote.
Manipulation can also occur, but it depends on how the Oscar committee can handle the data and examine all suspected activity and will not approve the vote if it comes from spambots.
But voting from Twitter accounts can provide closeness between fans and nominees because each nominee must have their own fans.
I wonder if there is a prize for the Twitter users who have voted.

[acroman08]

I was thinking of the gambling implication of this. What if somebody places a huge bet, say, a million or two, on a particular film and then activates all kinds of bots and thousands of fake Twitter accounts that could spam the platform of votes 20 times a day every single day from the beginning of voting until the end? In other words, is this open for manipulation?

bot voting was one of my first thought when I heard that they were planning to have voting via Twitter. results will be extremely unreliable if a bookie decided to post odds for it. I hope bookies would leave it alone and let people compete or at least have fun on what "fan-favorite film" should win and not ruin it because a gambler decided they want to cheat by manipulating the result.

[Fortify]

It is being reported that the upcoming 94th Academy Awards will be having a new addition. One of which is the Top Fan-Voted Film.

"Beginning this Monday, Twitter users will get to vote on their favorite films that were released in 2021 — regardless of if the film was nominated for an Oscar — using the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite. The film that receives the most fan votes by March 3 will be recognized during the awards broadcast on March 27."^[1]

Furthermore, "for both the fan-favorite film and cheer moment campaigns, Twitter users will be able to tweet out their submissions up to 20 times a day."^[Ibid.]

I was thinking of the gambling implication of this. What if somebody places a huge bet, say, a million or two, on a particular film and then activates all kinds of bots and thousands of fake Twitter accounts that could spam the platform of votes 20 times a day every single day from the beginning of voting until the end? In other words, is this open for manipulation?

[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/oscars-twitter-2022-1235092124/

Anything is possible, but I'm pretty sure the overwhelming input that achieves a win at these sort of events is a select group of judges aka "critics" who decide based on their own experiences. While they might be influenced by such methods in a tiny way, it's going to be almost insignificant and if the film is more garbage than talent - it would be a huge waste of money for a highly uncertain outcome. I'm not sure what the going odds are on these sort of indie film inclusions, but you'd probably need a huge and sustained advertising budget to get the reach that you're trying to achieve. It's a nice idea and people can be influenced in such ways (aka Donald Trump), the price to do it would be much higher than the returns.

[Hydrogen]

Am I the only one who expects this to be trolled by someone on 4chan with millions of multi botfarm accounts on twitter?

I like that they're expanding their options by introducing arbitrary end user nominations. But this is the internet and I suspect there is someone with the power to crash the results, who won't be able to resist doing so.

2021 wasn't the best year for movies that I remember. Things were so crazy with COVID I can't remember which films were good or bad in 2021.

Is it possible this user nomination feature might actually uncover a 2021 diamond in the rough, which most of us missed. I think it definitely has potential although they might have to take additional authentication steps to ensure that it won't be trolled.

[avikz]

I was thinking of the gambling implication of this. What if somebody places a huge bet, say, a million or two, on a particular film and then activates all kinds of bots and thousands of fake Twitter accounts that could spam the platform of votes 20 times a day every single day from the beginning of voting until the end? In other words, is this open for manipulation?

Very much possible! We have digital marketing agencies available in the market who does such kind of activities at a dirt cheap price. So if some has place a bet of a million or two, he would leave no stone unturned to win the bet through whatever tactics possible.

These kind of public voting is a flawed system. Especially when it involves social media voting. It's very easy to manipulate and not correct. Just assume a film from Norway and a film from China is fighting for this position. China would flood with vites due to the sheer human population which Norway won't be able to do.

[Accardo]

Before Oscar chose twitter they must have gone through all these thoughts and found that it's not easy to spam twitter with bots. Their API will be monitored and twitter has a specific time for different kinds of actions. If multiple accounts carry out many votes the system will definitely ban those accounts because their actions look like it's bot and many times the accounts will be subjected by twitter to verify if it's a bot or not. The only way to get out of this is by drip feeding the actions from time to time which will make it difficult for twitter to detect such malicious voting. Moreover, Twitter is more secured than other social medias like Instagram in terms of bot activities that's why Oscar may have chosen them for the Fan favorite Film voting.

[Kakmakr]

The Bookmakers know how to balance the odds, so they will look at the bets and they will make sure that it reflects the probability that a specific movie might win, based on the bets that are placed.

So, will this be open to manipulation and exploitation... the answer in my opinion is YES! There will be an army of bots trying to boost their favorite.

Will we see a true reflection of a "Fan favorite" ... I guess not, because this will be a war of the bots to try and cheat the voting system. 

[AicecreaME]

It is being reported that the upcoming 94th Academy Awards will be having a new addition. One of which is the Top Fan-Voted Film.

"Beginning this Monday, Twitter users will get to vote on their favorite films that were released in 2021 — regardless of if the film was nominated for an Oscar — using the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite. The film that receives the most fan votes by March 3 will be recognized during the awards broadcast on March 27."^[1]

Furthermore, "for both the fan-favorite film and cheer moment campaigns, Twitter users will be able to tweet out their submissions up to 20 times a day."^[Ibid.]

I was thinking of the gambling implication of this. What if somebody places a huge bet, say, a million or two, on a particular film and then activates all kinds of bots and thousands of fake Twitter accounts that could spam the platform of votes 20 times a day every single day from the beginning of voting until the end? In other words, is this open for manipulation?

[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/oscars-twitter-2022-1235092124/

There's a high possibility that the results will be manipulated. Nowadays, we all know up to what extent technology can do. Almost everything is possible with the help of technology and innovation. If the Oscar's would really resort to such voting, there's a big chance that they will get a controlled results because of bots and surge of multiple, new accounts just for the sake of voting. Wayback, facebook auto like is a thing and that was like year 2009. What more now that we are in much modern and advanced world. Maybe they could try to team up with twitter to filter the accounts that will tweet and vote. Then let twitter do its way to clean up and ban those multiple accounts that are mainly used for the sake of voting and trolling.

Regards to gambling, I think this method wouldn't be adopted by the casinos because it's really risky and there's so many loopholes. Anyone can take advantage and abuse it which could cause disruption of casino's ecosystem and loss of projected income.

[nakamura12]

I would also say that there is a possibility that it could be manipulated. If someone would bet huge amount and someone also found that bet plus the one who found out about the huge bet then manipulated the result then that would only make him/her lose the huge bet. If they don't want any manipulation then they should have their own platform for checking votes without using third party. IMO, it won't be manipulated. Using social media platform only makes the chance of getting manipulated very high.

[dbc23]

I was thinking of the gambling implication of this. What if somebody places a huge bet, say, a million or two, on a particular film and then activates all kinds of bots and thousands of fake Twitter accounts that could spam the platform of votes 20 times a day every single day from the beginning of voting until the end? In other words, is this open for manipulation?

such huge amount of bet will trigger such idea of creating bots the manipulate the voting system thereby making numerous votes or another option could be involving friends and colleagues getting them a cup of coffee and then instruct them on whom to vote once a bet is involved manipulation is bound to set in and since the bet staked is too high to lose odds would be put in place to ensure a positive outcome

[RapTarX]

I guess this won't be that easy to manipulate. You are unlikely to get thousands of fake tweets a day while on the other hand, films with real fans would definitely be active and post from their end & they are from around the world. Though, in theory, it's very possible to manipulate the prize, I doubt any house allows to place bets on such events until the first experiment.

[wxa7115]

It is being reported that the upcoming 94th Academy Awards will be having a new addition. One of which is the Top Fan-Voted Film.

"Beginning this Monday, Twitter users will get to vote on their favorite films that were released in 2021 — regardless of if the film was nominated for an Oscar — using the hashtag #OscarsFanFavorite. The film that receives the most fan votes by March 3 will be recognized during the awards broadcast on March 27."^[1]

Furthermore, "for both the fan-favorite film and cheer moment campaigns, Twitter users will be able to tweet out their submissions up to 20 times a day."^[Ibid.]

I was thinking of the gambling implication of this. What if somebody places a huge bet, say, a million or two, on a particular film and then activates all kinds of bots and thousands of fake Twitter accounts that could spam the platform of votes 20 times a day every single day from the beginning of voting until the end? In other words, is this open for manipulation?

[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/oscars-twitter-2022-1235092124/

While some casinos are offering bets on the Oscars I doubt they will offer a bet for something like this precisely because of the reasons that you are mentioning.

Something like this is completely open to manipulation and as such it is something that will be impossible to give precise odds to it, and if that is the case then it is better for the casino to stay away from this unless they plan to lose a lot of money with a bet like that.

[Oceat]

If this is prone to cheating then why bet millions or why bet on a losing game? It doesn't matter whose bots are winning but the fact that it's being manipulated and cheated it's just the same as handling your money to someone with ease without the struggle of risking it. Although, we don't know what would they do to something like this since any social media voting is always prone to manipulation and I've seen it even on Facebook and Instagram.

And I don't think they will offer a betting to it since it's too easy to manipulate.

[Darker45]

Anything is possible, but I'm pretty sure the overwhelming input that achieves a win at these sort of events is a select group of judges aka "critics" who decide based on their own experiences.

Actually this award was particularly created for the fans to solely decide. There will be no official judges or expert critics for this specific award except the fans themselves. This idea was originally being floated as Most Popular Film category years ago. But it wasn't implemented for certain reasons. So in lieu of that, this was the one implemented. But this Fan-Favorite Film is not a formal Oscars award category.

If this award actually goes to a film in a way that is without cheating and fake votes, it seems brilliant. There are indeed films that have captured the audience so much yet snubbed by the Academy. As written on the article I linked in the OP, movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home was a big hit and yet it only received a single nomination. That's almost none at all. If not with that single nomination, the cast would have no reason to go into the prestigious ceremony.

Anyway, I have seen odds on Oscars but I haven't yet seen one on this particular award. Probably because, as others have clearly thought, this is prone to abuse.

[fullhdpixel]

There's a high possibility that the results will be manipulated. Nowadays, we all know up to what extent technology can do. Almost everything is possible with the help of technology and innovation. If the Oscar's would really resort to such voting, there's a big chance that they will get a controlled results because of bots and surge of multiple, new accounts just for the sake of voting. Wayback, facebook auto like is a thing and that was like year 2009. What more now that we are in much modern and advanced world. Maybe they could try to team up with twitter to filter the accounts that will tweet and vote. Then let twitter do its way to clean up and ban those multiple accounts that are mainly used for the sake of voting and trolling.

Regards to gambling, I think this method wouldn't be adopted by the casinos because it's really risky and there's so many loopholes. Anyone can take advantage and abuse it which could cause disruption of casino's ecosystem and loss of projected income.

They are already teamed up with twitter by the time they do this and twitter know's what to do to minimize cheating. I think we cant compare twitter to facebook because in my opinion twitter is much stricter and they can control bots and other forms of abuse when compared to facebook but we don't know maybe facebook have improve their security now that are not new anymore. Oscars knows the risk and they think of that before they decided this idea but they have a trust with twitter.

Now, a gambling platform can do the same as well. They need to trust twitter with their voting system and all will be just fine and fair. I am excited for this.