Review bomb

A review bomb is an Internet phenomenon in which a piece of media like a video game or film receives a large number of user-contributed reviews in response to actions of the media's creator or distributor that are not directly related to the media itself. In most cases a review bomb arises from highly negative reviews to draw attention to perceived cultural or political issues, especially if the vendor seems unresponsive or inaccessible to direct feedback. Review bombing also typically takes place over a short period of time and meant to disrupt established ratings that a product already has at review sites, sometimes backed by campaigns organized through online message boards. It may be used as a mass-movement-driven coercion tactic, as a form of protest, or may simply be a form of trolling. Review bombing is a similar practice to vote brigading.

The practice is most commonly aimed at online media review aggregators, such as Steam, Metacritic, IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, or app stores. It may be motivated by unpopular changes to an established franchise, political or cultural controversies related to the product or service, or to the actions of its developers, vendors, or owners. Some owners of aggregate systems have devised means to detect or prevent review bombing, such as only allowing reviews from official sources such as web sites and/or magazines and, in the case of Steam, only allowing people who legitimately own the game to leave a review on it.