K-pop fans take over #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag to drown out racism

K-Pop fans took to Twitter with the hashtag #whitelivesmatter in a move to support anti-racism. The move drowned out white-supremacist messages with irrelevant or anti-racist posts. On Wednesday morning, the hashtag trended on Twitter.

Fans of K-Pop groups like BTS, MONSTA X and BLACKPINK have found a way to utilise their large social media presence to drown out racist messages. K-pop fans across the globe have taken over the hashtag #WhiteLivesMatter and have been flooding Twitter with anti-racist posts. A similar hashtag, #WhiteOutWednesday, is also being completely taken over by K-Pop fans. The fans post the hashtags together with clips, gif and other forms of media of their favourite K-Pop acts.

Someone else tweeted, “Imagine trying to trend #WhiteLivesMatter like a typical racist and Kpop fans said, “Not on my watch b***h.” For the time being the posts have drowned out actual racist posts using the hashtag. The movement then included hashtags like #MAGA and #BlueLivesMatter.

The #WhiteLivesMatter started after Blackout Tuesday where people in the music industry stopped daily work to protest police brutality against the African American community. Individuals who have shown their support by adding the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter to their posts were slammed for unintentionally drowning out that organisation’s messaging regarding protests, bailout information and similar issues.

Kenidra Woods, an activist said that the misuse harms the message and that the hashtag is used to keep people updated. She urged people to stop using the hashtag for black images. /TISG