How US K pop fans became a political force to be reckoned with
about 4 years in The guardian
Expect more online raids of the kind that drowned out a racist BLM backlash and humiliated Donald Trump, experts say
It started as an attempt to blunt the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement, but it ended in derision. When the #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag appeared on Twitter, its unintended descent into ridicule was driven not by hardened political activists but by a loose coalition of young people worldwide united by their love of South Korean pop music.
Those hoping to hold back the tide of support for Black Lives Matter amid global protests against the police killing of George Floyd could only hover helplessly over their keyboards as K-pop “stans”, slang for obsessive fans, drowned them out by flooding Twitter with video clips and memes of their favourite artists, many accompanied by anti-racist messages. Continue reading...
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