Avengers fans in China angry at Weibo for Endgame spoilers in trending hashtags
Should Weibo censor trending spoiler hashtags to avoid ruining movies for fans?
China is really excited about Avengers: Endgame, which premiered on Wednesday. But for fans who were not lucky enough to attend one of the many midnight showings in cities across the country, things got worse for them by morning. Many people awoke to major spoilers on one of the most frequented websites in China.
(There will be no spoilers in this story, so feel free to read ahead.)
Imagine opening Twitter, managing to scroll past all potential spoilers in your feed, then letting your guard down for just a moment to see “Trends for you” hashtags blow the most important events in a film. That was reality for many Chinese Marvel fans this morning.
On Weibo’s Discover page, where it hosts a hot search ranking list and a range of trending topics, a swarm of hashtags involving major plot points in Avengers: Endgame appeared hours after the movie premiered. Some of them had no subtlety or warnings to look away.
At one point, a blatant spoiler involving important characters was ranking at the top of Weibo’s hot search list, which means everyone who lands on the page almost certainly saw it (myself included). Needless to say, Avengers fans are furious.