The Brief: On June 3, K-pop stans took over the hashtag #WhiteLivesMatter and #WhiteOutWendesday by tweeting those hashtags along with pictures and videos of K-pop idols and messages against racism and white supremacy.
DEEP DIVE
K-pop stans are known for their large online presence. Their collective power has seen them change records in under an hour, like when BTS had the second most retweeted tweet of 2019, until ARMYs got wind of the Twitter record and got them to first place .
Those fans decided to use their collective force to drive a new agenda under the hashtag #WhiteOutWednesday. They tweeted photos and video of their K-pop faves with anti-racism messages while using the hashtags #WhiteLivesMatter and #WhiteOutWednesday, subsequently burying tweets about white supremacy. These hashtags began trending on June 3.
According to NBC News Reporter Ben Collins, 4chan users planned to flood timelines with the #whiteoutwednesday hashtag overnight, but K-pop fans got wind of the plans, and decided to drown it out.
Interesting thing here: 4chan posts overnight called for users to get the #whiteoutwednesday hashtag trending overnight, so it would be in Trending Topics when Americans woke up.
Problem is, k-pop fans are also awake, saw it happening, and drowned it out with stuff like this: pic.twitter.com/MjzAaBzcsx
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) June 3, 2020
This move is similar to that of Black Lives Matter protestors and supporters on Instagram. They used their #BlackOutTuesday posts, which featured black squares, to bury and black-out pro-police and white supremacy related hashtags.
K-pop Twitter’s activism was widely met with support.
#WhiteLivesMatter LMAO I WAS READY TO INSULT THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYONE, THEN I SAW THAT K-POP STANS ARE DESTROYING THE# DAMN NEVER THOUGHT I'D BE THAT HAPPY SEEING K-POP FANCAM ๐๐๐๐ pic.twitter.com/lb3Vpob0Wa
— Benjamin ๐ฌ๐ญโ (@YourMas78551251) June 3, 2020
Many of the tweets featured messages about against police brutality, racism, and white supremacy.
#whiteoutwednesday naeyon said fuck the police pic.twitter.com/CgikCdOn2X
— brooke๐ฆ (@gngbrooke) June 3, 2020
Made this for #WhiteLivesMatters pic.twitter.com/DXFgLsdrL0
— fro yo (@froyo877) June 3, 2020
Fuck racism bitch, here is a beautiful video of yoongles๐ฅบ#whiteoutwednesday pic.twitter.com/xWcMbqlSvG
— JiminGotJams (@TMIPARKJIMIN) June 3, 2020
the only #whiteoutwednesday we need, is when we rewrite history to support our fellow black communities! pic.twitter.com/CSfjD0juls
— daniel (@mycyborgself) June 3, 2020
Really thought you were going to let your racist self have #whiteoutwednesday trend huh? pic.twitter.com/J7piMovSY0
— Myaโท is seeing BTS in Chicago (@Myannaise417) June 3, 2020
At the time of publication, the tweets haven’t stopped, with much of the #WhiteLivesMatter and #WhiteOutWednesday hashtags now being filled with memes, too.
Kpop is out of control with the memes ๐ #whiteoutwednesday pic.twitter.com/YFYBMOuF1w
— tiny t-frecks (@tinytfrecks) June 3, 2020
Kpop fans are out in full force covering the horrible trending tags and Iโm here ๐๐ป for ๐๐ป it ๐๐ป #whiteoutwednesday pic.twitter.com/XBYn9JTddJ
— Stan Lewis (@StanLewis_) June 3, 2020
kpop stans ruining every white supremacist hashtag. i truly love to see it. #whiteoutwednesday pic.twitter.com/zctCl4FaDN
— fico (@fantasfico) June 3, 2020
White supremacists watching the #whitelivesmatter and #whiteoutwednesday hashtags being taken over by Kpop stans pic.twitter.com/oFEvpgoV1S
— That Aint It (@bonitafrobum) June 3, 2020