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kB - pop fan have takenTwitterby ramp in a joined front to troll white supremacist by co - opting the hashtag # WhiteLivesMatter , effectively drowning out the antiblack hashtag with their favourite cat valium - tonic images and video . This comes at a time when many are using social sensitive to magnify their voice and opinion over recent events .
Fresh off the heels of the much - publicized # BlackoutTuesday , in which social metier and the euphony industriousness “ blacked out ” to record the Black Lives Matter movement and justice for George Floyd , white supremacist group attempted to counter the movement with their own hashtags . Chiefly among these was # WhiteLivesMatter .
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When KB - soda fan beguile on to the rising hashtag , they decided to flood the Twitter undulation by attaching#WhiteLivesMatterto television of theirfavorite Korean pop call and idol , effectively drowning out the racist post with birdsong , color , and exquisite style . Some Twitter users actively voiced their financial support and allyship for Black Lives topic , while others lease their video stomach as an wordless confusing will for subverting racist trends . In this way , a misanthropical and cheerless hashtag is being used as a gleeful ( and tricky ) show of unity and love during a particularly troubling sentence .
Slacktivism With Consequence?
Hijacking yarn is as old as the internet , but the order of magnitude has vary as it’sentered the outside spotlight . At least one Twitter account from the hack - activist collective Anonymous was straightaway to take reference for the melodic protest , alleging the tweets were spearhead from “ the Anonymous K - pop division ” # OpFanCam . The same Twitter story place to two other hashtags that were also co - opted by the same motion . Both # WhiteoutWednesday and # BlueLivesMatter encounter the same influx of 1000 - soda pop . Other # BlueLivesMatter troll posts celebrated dingy life , but not the one you ’re thinking of(hint : Smurfs , Grover , etc . ) .
Alhough it ’s impossible to determine how much effect Anonymous really had on the K - pop Twitter coup d’etat , the source of the style does n’t weigh as much as the performance . In a time when hoi polloi are scramble to find effective and meaningful slipway to walk the marching music of progress , for better and worse a new kind of protestation has emerge , one that can be summarise up as organized direct military action slacktivism . As more societal accent is placed on social medium and curve topics , it ’s become increasingly possible to do more without ever leaving your information processing system .
While potential nothing will ever replace the real top executive of people demonstrating in the streets , the weight of on-line discussion raise every daytime , and what multitude share often has direct impact . On Blackout Tuesday , the Black Lives Matter movement was see with a problem when well - meaning allies uploaded images of black public square with the hashtag # BlackLivesMatter . Black Lives Matter and other concerned political party used the hashtag as a means to apportion info , which is especially critical during time of protests . By uploading the smuggled square with # BlackLivesMatter instead of # BlackoutTuesday , those allies were effectively overwhelm out the airwave . # WhiteLivesMatter was a reactionary hashtag meant to agitate and harry rather than share any real info , but the kB - pop response had the same essential impingement . The well - meaning KB - pop trolls succeeded in subvert the specify message of # WhiteLivesMatter , but it also serves as a model for how a group can hijack a functional internet while exert almost no individual elbow grease . Had it been intended as a noesis coin bank , like # BlackLivesMatter , it would have effectively been stopped in its tracks .
It ’s easy to send packing events like these as being the work of round , buttrolling is now an established partof American government that wo n’t be blend in away anytime soon . The spotlight deserves to stay on the contestant in the street and the activists working behind the scene , but this K - pop takeover is a fun side attracter of submerge out hate with love . Many no longer draw a hard line between what happens on the internet and in real life , and it always helps to have an army of Twitter trolls on your side .
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Source : Twitter