Stop Reading And Sharing Posts From Korean Gossip Blogs

     Due to recent events surrounding unethical news reporting by Korean media, I thought now would be a good time to address why ARMY needs to stop giving gossip rags attention. I know we still somewhat need to know what is being reported so we can send emails to Big Hit legal team about it, but as far as using them as sources- DO NOT DO IT. These gossip rags do not have the best intentions and all of them tell lies and start malicious rumors about BTS members. I thought I would look into the biggest offenders of the lot and look at who they are and why they are so terrible.

Koreaboo

     I'll start with Koreaboo since they are one of the absolute worst blogs out there for Kpop news/ gossip. The name itself should be a red flag. The term koreaboo is actually very similar to a racial slur that has been used against Black people so the word itself makes me cringe. I won’t say what word but I’m sure you could look it up. Koreaboo is a term some people use for those obsessed unnaturally with Korean culture. Some throw it around to anyone who is interested in Korean culture and that’s not right. It’s xenophobic to make fun of someone for being interested in other cultures. If that person likes K-dramas, K-pop, and Korean food that doesn’t make them a koreaboo. If they appropriate the culture then it would (but damn I really hate that term and lose respect for people who use it). That would mean people who fetishise Koreans like Oli London. Regular fans don’t count as koreaboos. These people decided to name their blog after a derogatory term. Red red flag!

      So who is the owner of Koreaboo? Its CEO is Flowison Shekar. The COO or chief operating officer is Omega Chen. They’re Berkeley and Stanford tech bros. Basically rich dude bro types who went to prestigious universities. I would be embarrassed to churn out the rubbish that they do and have people know that I was actually pretty well educated. You would never know that seeing the garbage bin slime type of posts they push on their blog. They really went to two of the best schools in the United States only to become owners of a notorious gossip blog that takes shots at K-Pop stars. Oh but they founded K-Con so that counts for something I guess (not!).

     According to Pitchbook, Koreaboo is an “information service” and that makes me laugh. That’s like calling Mcdonald’s a gourmet eatery. We can all use flowery language if we want to make something sound better than it is. "Misinformation provider" is a more accurate term. Maybe they don’t have a category for blogs or gossip rags. 

     Koreaboo is funded by angel investors and venture capitalists. All that reminds me of is the K-drama “StartUp” and the show that used to be on HBO “Silicon Valley” because they are based in California. Venture capitalists and angel investors make investments in startups at various stages to fund their development and they get a stake in the company. Apparently their writers are paid well, upwards of $60k plus a year. Of course with all the people clicking on their clickbait articles and trashy stories they probably aren’t hurting for money as most blogs make money from advertising. They have the readership to charge a lot for ads to run on the site. According to Rocket Reach they have about 40M users who visit the site. It's also probably why they don't seem to be afraid of getting sued. They have the money to afford legal representation and to afford to take a financial hit if they lose.

     Koreaboo is one of the biggest offenders of spreading clickbait and misinformation. They put out hundreds of articles on the Yoongi e-scooter situation, each full of more misinformation than the last,  and made it abundantly clear that they are not to be taken seriously as journalists. But you know when they have tons of money to throw around and they know that there’s an area that people are interested in (K-pop and Korean culture) and that interest keeps growing, they figure they will cash in on it one way or the other. They trash the whole industry with toxic clickbait articles defaming artists. Fans still read it for entertainment knowing that it’s all lies and they know people will still read it. Kpoppies use it to post their mean comments on Twitter for fan wars and here comes some ARMY getting offended and sharing it as if it was truth and spreading it to Threads. Some of us left Twitter to avoid all of that only to have to deal with it all over again in a space we all hoped would be an ARMY safe space. It’s better to screenshot and email articles to Big Hit than to share on social media. If you feel the need to talk about it then it’s best kept in DMs and group chats than being shared on socials. On Threads someone with 80 followers might post a Koreaboo article to say how horrible it is and how they shouldn't treat people that way. If someone comes along to react to it and comments and that person has say 500 followers that now has a reach of 582 people. It grows as people like, share, and comment. Your followers see everything you reply to FYI. 

Pannchoa 

      Pannchoa is another of the gossip rag blogs that specializes in stories related to K-pop idols and K-drama actors. Pannchoa translates Korean forum comments and articles from Korean sites. Their articles/posts are always clickbait and are pulled from The Qoo, a Korean forum site and a couple of other Korean forums. They have a disclaimer on their page that says that none of the articles posted reflect their opinion. I guess this is to try to cover their asses if they get sued but that technically does nothing. They are facilitating the dissemination of misinformation and flat out lies so they are liable still. By translating these articles from other sites into English, they are making it easier for others to read them. They make sure the Korean only articles gain a bigger audience. 

     I poked around the site while writing this post and I noticed they have a comment section on one of their anti-Suga articles that has hundreds of antis on it and one or two real ARMY defending him. What I got from that was that these hater comments being passed off as K-ARMY are really antis from other fandoms. The way they talk is like haters and not like ARMY so there’s a lot of cosplaying as ARMY going on. I tried to leave a comment but they ask for your email address and they need to verify your email address before they will allow a comment to post. I refuse to do all of that. They want proof that you are a human and to have access to you later via email yet they allow malicious comments to stay up on the site.
    I haven’t been able to find anything on who actually runs Pannchoa but from what I have seen is that it’s a small group that does the translations. There are rumors that they got sued earlier this year but I didn’t see anything confirming that. If they got sued, I would hope they would learn their lesson and shut down completely. The chatter around it was interesting though because there were comments where a few people were happy and wanted all K-Pop gossip blogs to go away. Then there were the ones who wanted them to go away but realistically noted that they would just resurface later anyway because there will always be readers. I also saw a comment where someone said “Pannchoa was my morning news! My morning coffe [sp], my breakfast.” The type of people who eat, sleep, and breathe gossip are the ones who keep these blogs alive and running. It’s sad because if it was all good news and true news it might not get as many views because of the drama seekers who love to see other people struggle and go through difficulties.

     In my opinion, Koreaboo and all the blogs/ “news sites” like it need to go away. Yesterday wouldn’t be soon enough for me. Either go away and stay away or start writing real news and being a reputable source of information. I know it can be done. I doubt they ever will though because there will always be people who read it and enjoy the fact that it is trashing idols and actors. It’s cyberbullying but monetized and dressed up to look like a legit business and online publication. It’s sick what these people get away with. ARMY needs to stop sharing and quoting these articles even if it is to bring awareness to their malicious posts. If you see something mean defaming BTS just report it to Big Hit (email to protect@bighitmusic.co.kr). No one else has to see it. If you have to talk about it, keep it to your group chats or individual DMs-basically off of Threads or Twitter feed. The more you comment or share there are more people who will see it. The more people who see it the more people who may believe the hype and lies and continue to spread them.

     Some people like drama and thrive on it because that gets them attention. I’m not talking about antis and trolls here. I mean seemingly normal people, fans, some ARMY. They think it’s cute to use comments from haters and clap back then post it. You’ll usually see it a lot from shooter accounts on Twitter (shooter is the term used for fans that fight in fan wars online) and now I’m starting to see it on Threads and I really don’t like it. Other than trying to get attention, I don't see a reason to clap back at someone who is probably never going to see your post. And bringing a screenshot of a post from Twitter to Threads to drag someone is just stupid. Everyone sees it but that person. If they did see it all that is going to do is start fan wars and if you came to Threads from Twitter for that then I suggest you go back. Threads ARMY moves differently. We don't do fan wars in case you didn't get the welcome memo.

I want better for ARMY. Namjoon said in one of his live streams that ARMY has changed and that’s not a good thing to me. I think we have an opportunity with Threads to build ourselves up to be a better ARMY. We can combat misinformation without spreading it. We can send tabloid article screenshots to Big Hit legal team for investigation without plastering them all over social media.  If you feel you have to talk about it, it’s best to just keep conversations to your DM and group chat. I’ve had ARMY moots DM me on Instagram and run things by me to ask if they should send to Big Hit and ask how to send it or for a template. I don’t mind that. It shows we are doing the right thing for our 7 and that’s the most important thing because that’s why we are all here. Our goal as ARMY is to support and protect BTS. Lies and rumors don’t protect them. Stopping them from spreading does.