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Single individuals can use multiple virtual private networks (VPNs) to influence results or large groups of fans can come from one site to another and then not return just to make an impact. And while there’s no 100% way to clean up results, experts in the field have learned over time how to spot the worst offenses — and suspect the Academy should be able to do the same to protect the integrity of the vote.

The Academy does have tools to curb some tech malfeasance. An individual with knowledge of the contest told TheWrap that a data company called Telescope put requirements in place so voters in the Oscar poll will be limited 20 tweets per day per Twitter ID, as stated in the contest’s official rules. Each Twitter account also needs to follow the AMPAS Twitter page, has to have been active for more than 24 hours and must have at least 10 followers.

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Of course, the Oscars Fan Favorite winner was never intended to be a scientific poll, and whatever film wins isn’t being presented with an actual Oscar statuette. It’s also unclear how any fan-based winner might be announced during the broadcast. So why would the Academy go to such lengths to validate every vote? Because there’s some recent (and controversial) history to consider.

The Fan Favorite vote comes after Academy members balked at the idea of a “Popular Oscar” floated back in 2018 — and quickly abandoned after an outcry. This new Twitter contest hasn’t been met with near the same amount of backlash, partly because that was conceived as an entirely new statuette-worthy category. But come awards night, the prize might be especially polarizing if ample screen time is given to a subpar film when many film lovers are up in arms over the decision to not air eight different categories live this year.

And while Academy members are already divided over the decision to present a third of this year’s awards ahead of the live broadcast and weave them into the ceremony, some members are now wondering why time might be given to a fan award if it winds up with an embarrassing result.

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“A Twitter contest is further evidence that the Academy doesn’t understand social media in 2022,” said Michael Shamberg, an Oscar-nominated producer who once sued AMPAS to get them to adopt new social media policies to its official bylaws. “Their social media contest also doesn’t sell any new entertainment element of the show that people have to watch, instead of simply reading what won on their social media feeds.”

While he’s a fan of this year’s Oscar telecast producer, Will Packer, Shamberg said there will be a “further disconnect” if “fanboys game” the contest.

“I didn’t mind this move to People’s Choice Awards-ify the Oscars. It’s benign but also lame and won’t work to engage or re-engage this mythic viewer that Academy leadership, the Oscars producers and ABC are so desperate to get back,” another younger Academy member told TheWrap. “I have a hard time believing that anyone who’d lost interest in the Oscars is now jazzed to watch because they get to participate in a meaningless award on Twitter.”

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While many assumed that box office juggernaut “Spider-Man: No Way Home” could walk away with the prize, a quick glance the #OscarsFanFavorite hashtag on Twitter shows a surprising amount of ballot stuffing tweets from Camilla Cabello stans casting their votes for “Cinderella,” an Amazon Studios musical which was critically panned and boasts a measly 42% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Johnny Depp fans have also thrown their weight behind “Minamata,” a movie that barely received U.S. distribution. And when Zack Snyder stans realized that the four-hour cut of “Justice League” wasn’t eligible, they shifted their support to one that does, Snyder’s “Army of the Dead.” They even have the memes to back it up.

“The Academy stubbornly refuses to understand the predominant 21st-century medium – social media,” Shamberg said. “The ratings are going to tank again and sink the Oscars even deeper into an abyss of irrelevance.”

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