In an official statement released on November 9, 2022, MAMA Awards announced the revision of the judging criteria for two major award categories - Worldwide Icon of the Year and Worldwide Fans' Choice. Here, Twitter votes will no longer be a factor in determining the winners of the said categories.

This brought different fandoms into intense and aggressive outrage since the pre-voting for the categories has recently concluded.

Why did the 2022 MAMA Awards remove Twitter votes from the judging criteria? Sit tight as you sip the latest tea in this article.

2022 MAMA Awards Changes Judging Criteria in 2 Categories

Before the announcement, fans can use Twitter votes by tagging the group's name via hashtag and #MAMAVOTE in their tweets to be counted as a vote. That is why fans expressed disappointment upon learning the news since millions of Twitter votes have already been cast to support their chosen K-pop acts.

Attached below is the 'Vote Notice' posted by the Official Twitter account of 2022 MAMA.

In the statement, MAMA cited "internal changes within Twitter" as the primary reason for recalibrating the judging criteria on the categories mentioned above. However, the awarding body did not elucidate further information regarding the cause of the sudden changes.

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Although details about the criteria modification were not directly mentioned by MAMA Awards, media outlets assumed that this may be due to Elon Musk's, Twitter CEO, colossal dismissals of staff members across the globe.

It could be remembered that Musk spent $44 billion to buy the site, suspend the board members, and proclaim himself as the CEO.

Upon ascending to the company's peak position, Musk ruthlessly fired almost half of Twitter's employees on a worldwide scale. Reports speculate that in Korea, at least 8 out of the 30 employees in Twitter Korea lost their jobs.

The former communications head of Twitter Korea, Shin Heejeung, shared that all the staff members of Twitter Korea were advised to visit their accounts to know whether they had received the unemployment notice. Employees would know they lost their job if they could not log in to their company accounts.

Some reports also described the headquarters of Twitter Korea as an "abandoned building," since at least 20 staff lost their jobs and almost every staff member in the public relation and communications department left Twitter already.

Since there is limited manpower in the public relation and communication section of Twitter Korea, the 2022 MAMA votes for Worldwide Icon of the Year and Worldwide Fans' choice are at risk of reliability. Reports cited that the internal changes with Twitter will lead MAMA to "inaccurately verify" the number of votes.

This consideration pushed the awarding body to recalibrate the voting system.

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Fans Expressed Disappointment, Deeming 2022 MAMA Awards as 'Worst Award Giving Body'

Since numerous fans have exerted effort to vote for their favorite idols using the Twitter platform, it is understandable why they felt the sudden outrage due to the announcement.

Here are some of the comments from fans:

"Tbh you guys should just stop doing all these useless votings because it has never been fair and with the way you're always changing the rules it's just wasting everyone's time"

"Funny cause the actual scamming was being done on the WEBSITE."

"abolish fan voting entirely and just do a random critics panel i want to see utter pure hazardous chaos"

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Regardless of removing Twitter voting from the criteria, MAMA has reassured the fans that both Mnet Plus and Spotify votes will remain.

The awarding body extended its apology, "We sincerely apologize for not being able to reflect the voices of global K-pop fans sent through the Twitter voting during the pre-vote stage. MAMA Awards will continue to make efforts to ensure a fair voting through objective data,".

What are your thoughts on this sudden change with MAMA's voting criteria? Share your thoughts below.

KpopStarz own this article

This is written by Sophia Carson