Voting may have only just opened in the 2015 Hottest 100, but triple J is already whipping out its new troll clause and waving it around aggressively.
The station is threatening to institute a Bieber ban, after thousands of fans fuelled a campaign started by an Australian betting company to vote The Biebs into this year’s Big List.
An international legion of rabid tween Beliebers have helped champion the hashtag #Bieber4Hottest100 to trend after a retweet from the man himself…
https://twitter.com/WillHillAus/status/674476079218733056/photo/1
…and the head honchos at J HQ are already moving to contain the threat.
“We want genuine votes from genuine listeners,” acting Triple J manager Meagan Loader told Tone Deaf. “It isn’t fair to Triple J listeners or artists whose songs could be undermined when campaigns try to incentivise votes or troll the poll.”
“We’ll keep an eye on it,” she added. “If we feel the outcome of the Hottest 100 has been manipulated votes may be disqualified or ignored.”
The j’s have fortified their defences against such popstar hijackings this year with the introduction of a new “troll clause”, giving them unrestricted power to quash any votes they deem threatening to their ‘musical democracy’.
It comes after the station almost got Swifted last year, as a result of BuzzFeed’s cheeky #Tay4Hottest100 campaign.
But unlike Tay Tay, at least one Bieber-featuring track WAS played on the J airwaves, which changes the game at least a bit.
Diplo & Skrillex pres Jack U – Where Are You Now [22:31]
— triple j Plays (@triplejplays) April 3, 2015
At this stage, none of the Biebs’ three 2015 tracks, What Do You Mean?, Sorry and his Skrillex/Diplo collab Where Are Ü Now, have been included in the Hottest 100 shortlist.
But if the updated voting rules are anything to go by, it’s almost certain that Justin Bieber will be denied from this year’s Australia Day countdown.
Baby, baby, baby, no!
Meanwhile, as further warning not to fuck with the Hottest 100 this year, the j’s have released the most epic promo trailer featuring pretty much every musician the station froths over doing some James Bond action movie style shit.
Voting for the Hottest 100 of 2015 is open now at triple j HQ.
Watch: Justin Bieber – What Do You Mean?
