review bombing

1 of 2

noun

variants or review-bombing

ri-ˈvyü-ˌbä-miŋ 

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

Noun

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

Some pointed out the dangers of attempting to limit what authors can write about, while some were dismayed that the book’s publication was canceled seemingly due to review bombing, without any critique of the book’s actual content. —Time, 12 June 2023

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

2019, in the meaning defined above