"Avengers: Infinity War": What is IMDb and how reliable is it?

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January 16, 2018 3:29 PM

How reliable is IMDb, the website which recently listed Funke Akindele and Genevieve Nnaji among the full cast of "Avengers: Infinity War"?

The news that a Nollywood actress - especially the much-loved "Jenifa's Diary" star - would appear in a Marvel film, elicited excitement on Twitter.

Days later, Akindele's name was removed from the film's IMDB page, and was replaced with Genevieve Nnaji. A day later, Nnaji's name was also removed from the page.

Following the removal, several theories were created: perhaps Akindele's deal with Marvel was terminated, her scenes were cut off, Marvel used her to generate buzz or someone edited the page for fun.

What is IMDb?

IMDb, formerly known as Internet Movie Database, isan online database of information related to films and TV shows, including cast, production crew, characters, biographies, plot, trivia and reviews.

The site is often described as web’s largest resource for movie information, media, news and trivia.

Anyone can edit IMDB pages

Just like Wikipedia, IMDb allows users to edit pages.

The site regularly accepts contributions from its members, irrespective of whether they have a role in the production or not.

All you have to do is register an account and submit the deletion, addition or correction you want to make on the page.

However, these submissions are subject to approval by the IMDb staff, who ensure that the data are as accurate and reliable as possible.

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Cases of false information on IMDb

In 2017, IMDb was updated to include June 25, 2017 as the official premiere date of "Game of Thrones." The news was reported by several media outlets .

Also, months before the season five finale of the show, the site listed Catelyn Stark as 'The Hooded Woman' - this didn't turn out to be true.

Severally, users have complained of cases where an actor is wrongly credited for a work, or not even credited at all.

Why there would always be inaccurate information on IMDb

In 2012, an IMDb staff told The Hollywood Reporter that while submitted data goes through checks, the volume of information received makes mistakes inevitable.

"When [mistakes are] reported, they are promptly fixed. We always welcome corrections," he said.

Can IMDb be trusted?

The content on IMDb can, more often than not, be trusted.

Nevertheless, while information on the site could be accurate, it is advisable to not consider it the last word on any given topic, until an authoritative source - preferably the actor, producer, director — confirms it.

Pulse had reached out to Akindele and her publicist for a statement on the trending story but got no response.

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