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‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Spoilers: Major Efforts Afoot To Block Spoilers From Hitting The Internet

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 11:28 PST, Dec 16, 2015

Fans trying to avoid Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers have an uphill battle.

Details from the plot of the latest in the Star Wars series are flooding the internet, with some early viewers leaving unsolicited reviews and revealing major plot points.

For many, it’s nearly impossible to avoid. Some viewers have decided to spoil the new Star Wars movie for others by leaving messages all over, including Reddit comment threads on topics ranging from news to television shows to, yes, even a message board for vacuum enthusiasts.

Now there is some help in avoiding those Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers. Google Chrome is offering an extension that blocks these potential spoilers, IGN reported.

“The likes of Star Wars Spoiler Blocker and Force Block: the Star Wars spoilers blocker both protect you from spoilers by blurring the webpage or giving you an alert before you continue.

“Force Block has been updated recently with a number of ‘instant-blocking keyphrases, sourced from people who have seen the film.’ It also has the ability to whitelist websites in the case of false alarms.”

Others are joining in as well. Gizmodo writer Chris Smith wrote that Disney took great lengths to keep the Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers from reaching the world before the film’s Friday release. Smith noted that despite covering the movie, writing about every trailer and ad released, and reading almost every review, he was able to avoid finding out the major plot points.

Business Insider offered more details on the steps Disney took, which included strict rules for media watching screenings of the movie. They were required to surrender phones and leave other digital devices at home. Disney also forbade them from posting anything on social media revealing the location of the screenings. And reviews were not allowed out until 12:01 a.m. PST on Wednesday.

The gag order wasn’t just for the media. The studio required all the major players, including director J.J. Abrams and actors Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill, to remain silent on details of the plot.

Gizmodo details the other efforts, including printing the script on dark red paper that would be illegible if photocopied. The studio also delayed the book tie-in until January, breaking tradition from releasing it two months before the release.

The conspiracy goes further still. Hasbro has already released some of the Star Wars figurines related to the movie, but some have been saved until after it premieres.

But despite the efforts, there are still plenty of Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers hitting the internet. The link-sharing site Reddit appears to be ground zero of Star Wars leaks, with many users making it something of a game to leave spoilers in very obvious places, like comments on top-rated posts.

This has led the moderator team to go into scrub mode, constantly finding and deleting these comments before too many people can see them. This many of the site’s thousands of volunteer moderators know the Star Wars spoilers, but have remained vigilant for the greater good of the site’s Star Wars-loving users.

There is still plenty of question as to whether the Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers are real or just part of a mean-spirited conspiracy to spread false rumors. In the past, sites like 4chan have organized fake spoilers and other trends, which many think could be the case with most of the plot points spreading around

But with screenings of the movie starting in hours, the real Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers will inevitably be hitting the internet very soon.

[Image via Instagram]

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