In early October, ‘review bombing’, a concept of relatively recent origin in the video gaming industry, entered public conversations in Kerala. Mubeen Rauf, director of the Malayalam film Aaromalinte Adhyathe Pranayam, approached the Kerala High Court seeking a gag on social media and YouTube reviews for at least seven days following a film’s release, claiming that they pose a threat to the industry’s financial stability.
Mr. Rauf also claimed that some vloggers resorted to extortion and threatened to post negative reviews if the producers did not pay up. The High Court, which sought to make a distinction between objective, professional reviews and subjective, personal opinions on movies, also touched upon ‘review bombing’, the practice of a large number of people, or a few people with multiple accounts, posting negative reviews with the intention of harming the box office performance of a film.
Last week, the Kerala Police booked seven online movie reviewers and social media platforms following a petition by Ubaini E., director of the film Rahel Makan Kora. At the same time, producers and people from the industry demanded a clampdown on online reviews. A section of the regional media also seems to have been weaponised to target online reviewers.
