Read on Twitter
Lots of talk over K-pop stans going political on Twitter yet there is a reason why the whole "never have I thought I would stand with K-pop stans" meme was most people& #39;s initial reaction. Let me tell you why it was as a reporter who& #39;s been covering the scene. (1/14)
I was assigned as a K-pop reporter in late 2018 and had little knowledge about the fandoms prior to that point. But what I& #39;ve learned over the years is that they are largely progressive & politically aware, on top of their next-level dedication & organization skills. (2/14)
A lot of people seem to think that flooding the Dallas Police Department& #39;s & #39;snitch& #39; app targeting Black Lives Matter protests with fancams is the first time K-pop Twitter went political but it& #39;s far from it. (3/14) https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/dallas-police-kpop">https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/c...
K-pop stans have been donating to charities & raise awareness of social issues online for a while now like the time it helped spread the word on the death of two students that sparked protests and calls for safer roads in Bangladesh. (4/14) https://twitter.com/pearlxnee/status/1025997933445926912?s=20">https://twitter.com/pearlxnee...
Or the time ARMYs funded over 35,000 lunches by donating to a charity in London after spreading the word of James Corden. (5/14) https://twitter.com/magic_breakfast/status/1222920159851094018?s=20">https://twitter.com/magic_bre...
Their latest example of online activism was to drown out right-wing/racist hashtags which apparently has taken a lot of people by surprise. (6/14) https://www.insider.com/kpop-stans-flood-spam-whitelivesmatter-hashtag-fancams-memes-2020-6">https://www.insider.com/kpop-stan...
The Chilean govt was one of the first to recognize the fandom& #39;s power as a political influence as their report said the fandom is "frequently mentioning human rights violations and criticizing the silence of the media or blocking social networks." (7/14) https://www.newsweek.com/chilean-government-blames-k-pop-recent-protests-1479151">https://www.newsweek.com/chilean-g...
One of the reasons why I think many people are surprised by how political of K-pop stans is the overall media coverage and dismissive/skewed views of K-pop on platforms like YouTube, both left and right. (8/14)
Though it& #39;s getting better among entertainment-focused publications, many Western media outlets still see K-pop from the Western gaze, perpetuating exhausting tropes like it& #39;s "government propaganda," if not busy focusing on the dark side like suicides and sex crimes. (9/14)
With that kind of coverage that lumps everyone together in the multi-billion dollar industry, from hard-working artists to sex offenders, from creatives to worst cases ever all under the term "K-pop," it& #39;s no wonder one-sided hot takes like these are easily found. (10/14)
On Youtube, things are often taken out of context with a text-to-voice reader to depict K-pop as this soulless manufactured government-backed soft power machine, again lumping everyone together and victimizing the artists. (11/14)
YouTubers like Ethan Klein hating on K-pop and then using the "dark-side" narrative to protect themselves from backlash are a recurring theme, as well as people on the internet, mostly men, stereotyping the fandom as "gullible young girls." (12/14)
"K-pop is cancer BECAUSE fancam" has also become the new talking point on Twitter because of instances where fancams were inappropriately used. But I& #39;ve seen many people use that excuse just to spite the fandom w/o having to deal with accusations of racism. (13/14)
And I say all this to say that, despite the bad rep, K-pop fans are a pretty smart and social-media savvy bunch and I& #39;m just glad to see them finally getting the recognition they deserve. 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✌️" title="Siegeshand" aria-label="Emoji: Siegeshand"> (14/14)
+Another thing I’ve observed but failed to mention more clearly earlier is the largely female, diverse & LGBT makeup of the fandom, which is often on a collision course with online communties that are male dominant/less diverse/more right-wing.
