K-Pop Fans Use Internet for Black Lives Matter: Vox

The video of George Floyd, pleading for his life, handcuffed and his neck under a police officer’s knee, has moved the world to denounce unequal justice and police abuses. “Across the internet, supporters of Black Lives Matter are weaponizing tweets, posts, and hashtags to spread information, protect protesters, and derail racist rhetoric,” reports Aja Romano for Vox. Originating in South Korea before becoming popular worldwide, K-pop includes hip-hop, jazz and other African-American influences. The fan base is active on social media, known for finding popular hashtags and mischievously inserting unrelated video close-ups, known as fancams, of K-pop stars. Now, this army of fans flood police tip lines and disrupt posts from white supremacists, sending out fancams with the hashtag #WhiteLivesMatter. The goal is to over-run such hashtags, making them useless. Other techniques include using clickbait to draw attention to serious reports, inserting copyrighted Disney material into problematic posts to encourage removal, and donating ad revenue from YouTube and other channels. “All of these methods of virtual and real-world support reveal the individual quirks and cultures of many different platforms, apps, and internet communities,” Romano writes. “The more varied, messy, and decentralized the internet is, the more versatile it is.” – YaleGlobal