review bombing

1 of 2

noun

variants or review-bombing
plural review bombings or review-bombings
: the flooding of a website with usually negative reviews (as of product or business)
While not always the case review bombing often seems targeted at projects that champion minorities, be it women, people of colour or the LGBTQIA community.Thomas Mitchell
The Last Jedi also provoked an extreme fan reaction, and more review bombings where coordinated efforts were made to lower its rating on websites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb.Andrew Blair
While it was critically praised, there was some amount of backlash and intense review-bombing, owing to some of the major twists the show had in store.Narayan Liu

review bombing

2 of 2

present participle of review bomb

Examples of review bombing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Noun
This toxic fandom can include practices like review bombing, where people deliberately give projects low ratings online, as well as social media abuse. Callum Booth, Forbes, 28 Oct. 2024 The low score has been attributed to unjustified review bombing with the key evidence being the fact that the show's Rotten Tomatoes critics' score stands at a more respectable 78%. Caroline Reid, Forbes, 26 Sep. 2024 Since its June 4 release, however, there have been allegations of review bombing, as its audience score has plummeted to only 14 percent — lower than the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 June 2024 Larson’s film experienced review bombing by people who left misogynistic reviews for the film on Rotten Tomatoes, even before the movie had been screened. Alexandra Del Rosario, Los Angeles Times, 14 Nov. 2023 Following the initial announcement, the book became the target of review bombing, a practice where online users post multiple negative reviews on social media and review sites, which has increasingly become a problem for authors. Time, 12 June 2023 Last year, the site added shadow ban, review bombing, and pickleball. Emilia David, The Verge, 6 Sep. 2023 And since then, review bombing has become commonplace in the gaming industry. Theara Coleman, The Week, 5 July 2023 Established authors have also been subjected to review bombing campaigns. Elizabeth A. Harris, New York Times, 27 June 2023

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

2019, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of review bombing was in 2019

Dictionary Entries Near review bombing

Cite this Entry

“Review bombing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/review%20bombing. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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