K-Pop Fans Overtake Twitter 'White Lives Matter' Hashtag to Combat Racist Posts

Peaceful protests are happening all around the country as the public rallies following the killing of George Floyd. Hundreds of protests have occurred in the last week which have prompted very important conversations about racism, classism, and police brutality. It goes without saying that social media has been a critical tool as Twitter has become a source for news and organization. But when an anti-racist hashtag began cropping up online, it was the K-Pop stans who stood up to protest the movement.

The movement began overnight as #whitelivesmatter made itself known on Twitter as a trending topic. At the start, the hashtag was filled with messages bolstering white supremacy and overtly racist posts. A conversation arose over how the hashtag gained momentum so quickly, and K-pop fans took it upon themselves to spam the hashtag with idol-centric posts to drown out the harmful posts.

After all, the K-pop fandom has gained a reputation for posting fancams on Twitter whether everyone else approves or not. In the past, the fandom has been given grief for allegedly starting hashtags canceling celebrities in order to promote their favorite K-pop groups. While many within the fandom have pushed against such allegations, they are glad to take the blame for this hijacking. And as you can expect, netizens are praising the fans for using their fancams for something so crucial.

As you can see below, the posts are still flooding Twitter as K-pop fans try to do crowd control on the anti-racist hashtag. Their fancams have even spread to other adjacent trends.

This is not the first time the K-pop fandom has rose up collectively during the protests. Earlier this week, the fandom took credit for downing an app created by the Dallas Police Department. The authorities asked for the public to submit videos of "illegal activity from the protests' on their app iWatch Dallas, and the ask was met with resistance. K-pop fans were quick to flood the app with fancams of their favorite artists, and the police took down the app the following day due to "technical difficulties."

HT - Variety