The image is from Columbia Pictures.
Today is the opening day of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which means that there was a lot of interest in the movie. The problem isn't a new one, people either intentionally or inadvertently spoiling major twists and turns in big films or TV shows is inherent to the idea of surprise reveals in media. The entire internet has been entwined with the hype cycles of these movies, and it has grown as a result.
No Way Home shows how poorly the design of the social network handles information.
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Spider-Man: No Way Home swings big on two decades of fan payoff.
You can't reach anyone on Facebook orInstagram if you are friends with them. You can't do anything about the algorithms of TikTok and YouTube. It is easy for people to follow and share their reactions to others, and it is designed to amplify the loudest and most exciting content at any given time.
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It is a perfect recipe for spoiling movies because of the same algorithmic problems that the discovery tools like its trending sidebar shares with other platforms. It feels like it favors whoever is willing to shout the loudest in the room at any given time, but platforms like Reddit offer ways to limit the reach of bad actors, with downvotes and editable posts that allow forSPOILERS to be hidden by mass voting or removed by the original poster
There are similar issues on other platforms, where reactions from the movie can be seen on people's homepages or For You feeds. The first thing I saw on my website this morning was a video of the end of No Way Home.
As time has gone on, users have been able to block out specific phrases and words on the platform, which has made it easier to dodgespoilers. The major moments from the film were already making the rounds in video or image form, so the mute filters can only help so much.
There is still a lot that can be done here. Adding opt-in spoilers tags would allow users to chat with each other about the latest movie while still hiding the text or video until you click through. It isn't a solution that protects from bad actors who want to ruin things for everyone.
One of the easiest things this terrible website could do to make things better for its users would be to add spoiler tags so people could react to the new Succession or Spider-Man without pissing off half their friends.
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December 17, 2021.
There is a main issue that the platform doesn't have incentive to crack down on. The kind of engagement these platforms want is when people excitedly talk about the biggest show or movie of the moment. The day Spider-Man: No Way Home is released, the biggest reveals on the platform will be a feature, not a bug.
No Way Home is sensitive to having major moments spoiled for long-time fans, which is why the pain points here are amplified. Unlike Dune, which was the third adaptation of a decades-old novel, there weren't many concerns that someone might reveal that Paul Atreides was the Kwisatz Haderach. The reveal is half the point for a modern Marvel movie, which is why fans have gotten so defensive about it.
The fact that these movies and shows have become much bigger cultural icons, and the weight that fans place on not having major moments or cameosruined, has increased dramatically in recent years. No Way Home had an entire campaign based around asking fans to not watch the movie and to stay off social media to avoid revealing anything.
The first of these campaigns was by Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, who gave out pins to those who had seen the play.
There is a problem with spoiler culture and social media being against each other: one seeks to keep major aspects of the most popular movies and films secret (or limited to specific forums and threads), the other thrives on spreading conversation to as broad a group as possible. At the end of the day, the only real solution is either to stop using social media when major releases come out, or to stop caring aboutSPOILERS at all.
