K-Pop fans took to social media to hijack anti-black and anti-protest hashtags and render them unusable.
What We Know:
- The Twitter hashtags #WhiteLivesMatter and #WhiteOutWednesday were trending on Wednesday, June 3rd.
- Use of these hashtags increased in response to protests against police brutality. Many of these posts opposed and criticized protesters and Black Lives Matter.
- K-Pop fans comandeered these hashtags by spamming them with fancams, memes, and messages of support for protesters. This was done in an effort to drown out any posts spreading racist sentiments or undermining the protests occurring around the world.
- K-Pop fans have also worked to keep their own fandom hashtags and topics from trending out of respect for protest organizers. The K-Pop community surprised many with their savvy use of social media and overwhelming dedication to this cause.
- Earlier this week, K-Pop fans contributed to protestor efforts to take down the iWatch Dallas app, where Dallas PD requested citizens use the app to send videos and report illegal activity at protests. Fans flooded the app with K-Pop content and the system crashed.
#WhiteLivesMatter oH ? were you here to be racist? no thanks, anyways, good try. pic.twitter.com/EqZSbckZhG
— bekah⁷+×+💙. (@19CYJ99) June 4, 2020
These are just the most recent efforts by the online K-Pop community to organize for social causes and political movements. Fans are continuing to flood hashtags like #AllLivesMatter and #ExposeAntifa.
