Israel Is Astroturfing IMDb's Review System to Manufacture Consent for Genocide
In addition to its many other forms of propaganda, Israel has branched out into documentaries to spread dehumanizing misinformation about Palestine, and it's manipulating online platforms like IMDb to do it.
Since October 7th, 2023, “documentaries” made with the sole purpose of justifying the ongoing Gaza genocide have been listed on IMDb. These “documentaries” are then bombarded with bot-generated 10-star reviews, many of which use the same AI-generated language heralding these propaganda pieces as essential viewing. All of these reviews are part of Israel's propaganda—or as Israel calls it, “hasbara”—strategy, which has been in overdrive for the past year in an increasingly desperate effort to justify its ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
Propaganda on IMDb
A prime example of this is Screams Before Silence, a 57-minute long attempt to give new life to the claims of mass sexual violence allegedly perpetrated by Palestinian resistance fighters on October 7th.
This film—like all of the falsified stories of sexual violence on October 7th that preceded it—has been rigourously debunked.
Yet the IMDb listing for it has received waves of 10-star reviews, many posted on the same day months after the film’s release and with eerily similar language. Of its 140 reviews at the time of this writing, a whopping 121 (86%) of them give the highest possible rating.
For comparison, Shawshank Redemption, ranked the best movie ever by IMDb, managed to garner a 10-star rating from just 66% of user reviews.
Here are some examples from June 21, 2024, when an astonishing 35 reviews were posted. (Another 26 were posted on June 22, and another 11 on June 23, accounting for an astonishing 48% of the 150 reviews in just three days.)
People don’t organically write this way, but for comparison’s sake, here’s a review we generated using Google Gemini:
Screams Before Silence is a harrowing yet essential documentary that leaves an indelible mark on the soul. This film is a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable horror.
The cinematography is both brutal and beautiful, capturing the raw emotion and devastation of the events with unflinching honesty. The interviews with survivors are heart-wrenching, providing a visceral understanding of the trauma they endured. The film's pacing is masterful, building tension and suspense while never losing sight of the human cost of war.
The subject matter is undoubtedly disturbing, but the film's message of hope and perseverance shines through. Screams Before Silence is a must-see for anyone seeking to understand the depths of human cruelty and the enduring power of the human spirit.
Although the common threads are undeniable, it is important to note that Israel has a proven track record of using bots to undertake online propaganda campaigns.
This flood of reviews tells IMDb’s algorithm—just like interactions on any other platform—to push the film to more users, increasing the film’s reach and adding more power to the hasbara campaign that spawned Screams Before Silence.
There are other propaganda pieces that have received the same boost. Supernova, The Music Festival Massacre, #NOVA, and most recently the Paramount+ Original We Will Dance Again have all seen a surge in 10-star ratings and reviews.
Is That Even Allowed?
IMDb has done nothing to counter the ongoing efforts to game their rating system, despite the fact that it violates IMDb’s own policies:
In rare instances, we may notice efforts to influence the user rating for a title via organized mass voting campaigns and other similar tactics. While it's our policy to not remove valid votes, IMDb already calculates weighted user averages using a mechanism to neutralize the impact of attempts to artificially inflate/deflate a title's rating.
This mechanism is applied to all titles. In other words, just because the ratings breakdown shows a large number of votes, it doesn't necessarily mean that those votes have the same weight. Rest assured that we carefully monitor voting patterns for these titles to determine our best course of action.
The likelihood that many of these reviews are AI-generated is also a violation of IMDb’s conditions of use, which specifically prohibits content that is created by generative AI.
The egregious rating distribution and review sprees on hasbara pieces like Screams Before Silence undermine IMDb’s system credibility. The popular online database boasts that it provides an accurate, organic assessment of the quality of the content on its site through its rating system. However, instead of merely spurring disappointment in users who watch a highly rated movie only to dislike it, IMDb’s manipulated ratings for these propaganda pieces manufacture consent for the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
While IMDb reserves the right to remove or edit content that violates its terms, it has yet to do so for Israeli propaganda published since October 7th and subsequently bombarded with inauthentic ratings and reviews. Given that literal lives are on the line, IMDb should immediately conduct a review of all ratings and reviews on these listings to ensure they meet the platform’s own standards.
How Can You Help?
If you want to contribute to keeping online spaces like IMDb honest, here are some simple steps you can take to counteract the inflated popularity of these four examples:
First and foremost, give them the rating you feel they deserve and downvote reviews that you feel are AI-generated or otherwise unhelpful. If you find an AI-generated review, you can also report it as containing spoilers to hide it.
If you have additional time and want to help out further, you can consider the following:
- Take a few minutes to write your own review. Do NOT use AI to generate it, and don’t use junk text that may get your review discarded. Make sure the review is directed at the film, not other reviews or the overt political topic at hand, as that will get it easily removed. Focus on its filmmaking quality, lack of evidence provided, points where it could be improved, etc., and avoid politically charged language.
- Send an email to IMDb notifying them of this persistent violation of their rating system. Select “IMDb Fan” for topic, “Ratings, watchlist & more” for the issue, and “Report ratings issue” for details, and then write a message including details of the AI-generated, 10-star ratings and reviews on these titles.
- Post on IMDb's community page about these reviews. Make sure to include all the relevant details in your message so that the reviewing staff can take appropriate action.