'Rotten Tomatoes' Under Fire After Reportedly Suppressing Positive Reviews for Controversial New Film
A viral rumor is spreading across social media claiming that the review aggregator site "Rotten Tomatoes" deliberately suppressed high-scoring audience reviews for a new independent documentary about the fast-food industry. The claim, which originated from a now-deleted tweet by an anonymous film blogger, alleges that the website manipulated its user score to align with a negative critical consensus, sparking outrage among fans. However, fact-checkers from multiple outlets have found no evidence of any algorithmic tampering. A Rotten Tomatoes spokesperson confirmed that all scores are calculated automatically and that the supposed "missing" reviews were likely flagged for spam or duplicate accounts. While the rumor is false, the hashtag #RottenTomatoesScandal has trended for over 24 hours, demonstrating how quickly misinformation can go viral even when debunked. The film in question holds a 92% fresh score from critics and a 78% verified audience score, which is well within normal variance for a polarizing title.