May 1, 2023

Multiple authenticated Twitter accounts leaked "Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Avatar" over the weekend.

The "Super Mario Bros. Movie" continued its historic box office run this week, but all was not well in the Mushroom Kingdom after the full-length film was posted on Twitter for several hours over the weekend.

What happened - On April 28, a rip of the entire "Super Mario Bros. Movie" was posted on Twitter in two installments by an account named Twilight Sparkley (@OMGitssAshley). The video was reposted by the account VIDEO THAT GO HARD (@vidsthatgohard) on August 30 and was up for several hours.

Number of people who saw the film on Twitter - There is no way to know how many people saw part or all of the film, but at least 9 million accounts saw VIDEO THAT GO HARD's tweet before Twitter deleted it. The account has since been suspended. [Mario was uploaded to Twitter thanks to a new feature in Twitter's paid verification system. Users who pay for Twitter Blue can now upload one-hour HD-quality videos, but apparently there is no strong filtering process in place to prevent copyrighted material from being posted. In fact, "Avatar: The Way of Water" was also posted to Twitter on Saturday evening on three separate occasions by an authenticated blue account.

Why didn't someone at Twitter delete it sooner - The Mario Bros. leak feels like a direct result of Twitter disbanding its Trust and Safety Council and firing most of its compliance team after a company changeover last year. With checks and balances functioning less well now than they were before Elon Musk took over the company, it makes sense that cracks are beginning to appear.

What the Leak Means for Films - As Illumination's latest film crossed the billion-dollar mark on Sunday, the Mario Bros. leak did not seem to have much of an impact on the film's box office success. Nevertheless, Universal Pictures and Nintendo are probably not too happy with Twitter right now.