Threads and Instagram BTS ARMY Blocklist

     The blocklist is hopefully working to keep most unwanted things from our feeds. I'm glad that when some drama from Twitter makes its way to Threads I often have no idea what is going on and I like to keep it that way. But we have our share of solos and stalkers on Threads using the app and Instagram to build followers by sharing things they shouldn't and invading the privacy of the members. I keep noticing ARMY adding people to the "btsarmyblocklist" on Threads that are already on there and I get requests to add people that are already on it. Unfortunately on Threads we don't have the blocklist capabilities integrated into the app like they do on Bluesky (probably because they want to be able to continually push negativity and politics to your feed and they don't want you to have half of those people blocked already). That blocklist capability makes it easy to block a lot of accounts all at once and automatically shows everyone on the list so you can see who is on it as well as manually block whom you choose as you go down the list or just block the full list all at once. 

   I decided to put the blocklist that has the topic as "btsarmyblocklist" in a spreadsheet. I know someone already did that, but from what I'm told it has been deleted and is no longer available or maintained. I plan to keep mine on this blog and add to it as necessary. Keep using the hashtag or topic "btsarmyblocklist" and I will update it with names from there. 

  You all know the rules for adding someone to the blocklist but I will reiterate some of them. 

1.  When you add someone to the blocklist, try to get screenshots of what they did to go on it. We started doing this because people were deleting posts once they got called out. The only exception to screenshots or video is if someone is spreading stalker photos or video of the members in public or private and we don't want to further spread that. (Update: Threads now has a spoiler feature that censors pics by blurring them. You could use that on your screenshot but try not to share actual videos. They will see what you mean when they go to the page to block if it hasn't been deleted. Feel free to briefly describe the content being shared and why they are to be blocked). Also if something is particularly gross or offensive like sexual images or offensive language you can just put their screen name or a screenshot of their bio page and explain why you are adding them to the list. 
2.  Don't add anyone to the list out of spite or just because they made you mad. In the process of pulling from the list I saw a few people that I questioned why they were added. I usually go through their replies to see if they have had any other comments that would be a reason for them to be added but sometimes there aren't. Also I saw an instance where someone instigated an argument with a person that was put on the blocklist. Don't do that. Stay out of other fandom's business and if you don't like something you don't always have to comment. If you start something with someone like fan wars or arguing about genres with people that aren't in the Kpop circle and they clap back responding to you that's not really a reason to put them on the blocklist. You should personally block them but that doesn't mean it's a matter for the fandom in particular. You may find you both end up on the list so it's best not to instigate fanwars because we don't do that as Threads ARMY.
3. Fact check before you add people. If you aren't sure if something belongs on the list, ask a more seasoned ARMY. Reverse search photos to see where they come from (use Google Lens).  If you think someone is a solo but you're not sure you can always ask a more seasoned ARMY who can go through their account and see if they see red flags. If you have questions don't hesitate to ask the more knowledgeable ARMY. You can also DM me on Instagram and I will take a look at it and get back to you.
4. I don't take anyone off the list for apologizing so don't ask. If someone feels they have been added to the list unjustly it can be reviewed but this list is also a guide. No one is demanding that you block anyone on the list it's just a good guide to things we don't stand for and don't want on our feeds. This is why we require that you add screenshots for proof unless it is a situation where we don't want to spread rumors or unauthorized pics or video or potentially spread sexually explicit material further (it happens). The more of these people that aren't blocked by most ARMY, the more likely it will be that they will show on your feeds from trolling your moots or their pics will show because the algorithm will pick them up because they post about BTS. Blocked means you won't see their content at all.
   

The spreadsheet is in viewer only mode and only I have access to add to the spreadsheet. When you add people to the blocklist on Threads using the tag "btsarmyblocklist" I will go through it periodically and try to add the accounts there to the spreadsheet. To search the list quickly for someone on a laptop or pc use Control+F to find a name within the spreadsheet and a window will pop up on the top right for search. On phones you should be able to click the 3 dots in the top right corner and go to "find and replace" and under "find" type your search. 

BTS ARMY THREADS AND INSTAGRAM BLOCKLIST LINK

**Update: Threads doesn't automatically block people on IG anymore when you block them on Threads. Don't forget to manually block them on Instagram as well so the same accounts don't end up in your Instagram feed or get recommended to you on Instagram. 

Important Vocabulary for new ARMY

     As BTS ARMY grows, we welcome new ARMY to the fandom. I know in the beginning it can be overwhelming and I want to help in any way I can. There are some terms that we use and things that may confuse you as you get into the fandom as they confused me when I found BTS and joined the fandom later on online. Never be afraid to ask questions because some things we do in ARMY are different than a lot of other Kpop fandoms. I don't claim to be any official authority on this but I learned a lot from OG ARMY on Twitter back when Twitter was a good place for ARMY to share info without all the toxicity that's there now. I kept quiet and took notes and now I try to pass on what I know as I learn more. Here's some terms we use frequently that you should learn.

1. Solo- Solo stans don't like all the members of the group. They take a bias and they only vote and stream for their fave when they are involved and may even participate in sabotage like voting for other groups  or artists to see the members they don't like lose, They make toxic comments like "ARMY doesn't support (member)" or they will call ARMY solos when they get called out for being solos. There are people saying that not all solos are bad but the only ones that are good usually stay out of fandom business and aren't as active in fandom spaces. For example I like Jackson Wang and got into his solo work and no shade but I have no interest in GOT7 and I don't go into their fandom groups and talk about them or other members at all. Solos of BTS members stay in our spaces and intentionally bully and cause trouble. Be aware and block freely to keep the peace.
2. Diet solo- pretends not to be a solo and may not be as vocal about it but will show their full solo colors eventually, puts their fave over the other members but will say they aren't a solo till they are exposed. They will blame ARMY when their bias loses voting and will use terms like "you ARMY" distinguishing themselves from the fandom yet still saying they aren't solos. 
3. Multi stan- someone who stans multiple kpop groups. Supporting multiple groups is not an issue but if you say you stan BTS then you should be prioritizing streaming and voting for them and not leaving when it's voting time and coming back when it's over or voting for your other faves while we work hard for BTS, beware of them sometimes saying "BTS has enough awards so I'm voting for (other group) now because they deserve it" I have seen this way too many times and ARMY votes and supports BTS when BTS is nominated period. 
4. Anti- another term for haters, solos and sasaengs are antis, they engage in fan wars and post rage bait posts to get ARMY involved in fan wars, they invade the privacy of the members and make up excuses for exposing private information just so they can seem popular putting BTS at risk 
5. Manti- usually solos but not always, but they are so extra that they try to demand things from Hybe or Big Hit and complain about how things are done, they may complain about the packaging of 1 member's albums compared to another's or the promos and start campaigns to trend things on Twitter like "Hybe protect (this member or that member)" or make posts demanding things like physical CDs when only digital are available, they try to act like they can do better at the job of promoting and managing the artists than the artist or company themselves 
6. Company Stan-is an insult that antis and solos like to throw at ARMY who listen to other groups within Hybe or when we defend Hybe from solo and anti slander
7. OT7=ARMY- OT7s are ARMY and ARMY is OT7, solos are not ARMY and will put down ARMY and are disrespectful to us. ARMY loves all 7 members of BTS. You can have a bias and still be OT7 and you can not have a bias and be OT7. Both are equal and it's not better or worse not to have a bias and not having a bias doesn't put you above those who do. If you show up for all 7 in voting and streaming and respecting all 7 members you are OT7, there also os no such thing as ARMY Seokjinnies or ARMY pjms - we do NOT combine solo fandom names with ARMY to signify our bias I'm ARMY and my bias is Namjoon I'm not ARMY moonchild 
8. Daesang The highest grand prize awards in South Korean music shows are called daesangs. 
9. Bonsang- The second highest awards in South Korean music shows are bonsangs. Bonsangs are called main prizes and are awarded to many artists. Ex: at the MAMA awards 2024 Jungkook, Tae, and RM all won bonsangs along with several other artists while Jimin won the daesang.
10. Moot- moot is short for mutual friend or mutual follower on social media so the people you follow who also follow you back are your moots and you would be their moot.
11. Nugu- the term nugu or 누구 comes from the phrase "who are you" in Korean or 누구셰요 (nuguseyo) meaning " who is it",  it is used to refer to newer artists, groups and can be a normal term or used in a derogatory manner depending on how you say it 
12. Bias-- bias is the member you feel the most connected to, some people say favorite but I don't use the word favorite because I love all 7 and it sounds too exclusive of the other members to say favorite. 
13. Bias wrecker- Your bias wrecker is the one that always gets under your skin in the best way and grabs your attention from your bias. All of BTS constantly wreck me but Jungkook is my main bias wrecker  
14. Sasaeng- sasanengs are those who engage in extreme behavior as anti-fans and stalkers invading the privacy or violating the privacy of idols. They stalk them in public and private and post pictures and video as well as show up to locations where they are asked not to be like private taping of videos or shows and military discharge locations. Stalking them online and sharing private info is sasaeng behavior as well
15. Kpoppies- This is a term that refers to the rest of kpop fans as a whole outside of a particular fandom. ARMY in my opinion uses it to refer to the rest of kpop because BTS and ARMY are often left out of conversations despite being the biggest global group and fandom in the industry. Kpoppies can be derogatory or not depending on use. 
16. Member focused accounts- Member focused accounts are accounts that only post about 1 member but are not solos. It can be hard sometimes to determine if they are solos or not but with some checking the accounts and word choices they use when posting you can figure it out. If not ask other knowledgeable ARMY to check it out for you. Member focused accounts are good for getting pics and video of the members and usually good at providing updates on specific members. 

     Hope these definitions help you with understanding things as you get used to conversations within the fandom and in fandom spaces. If I think of any more I will add to this later.

BTS Members RM, V, Jungkook and Jimin Complete Military Service

      After a long wait, BTS's RM (Kim Namjoon), V (Kim Taehyung), Jimin (Park Jimin) and Jungkook (Jeon Jungkook) have completed their mandatory service in the South Korean military. Members Jin (Kim Seokjin) and J-Hope (Jung Hoeseok) have already served and were discharged June 12, 2024 and October 17, 2024 respectively. The final member to be discharged, Suga aka Agust D (Min Yoongi),  will be discharged on June 21. Suga has been enlisted the longest due to his social service assignment. 

     ARMY, BTS's strong loyal fan base waited patiently on the streets near the Hybe building to catch a glimpse of the guys as they arrived to the company on both days of discharge (RM and V on June 10 and Jungkook and Jimin on June 11). Many more fans tuned in online to watch the press conference from Chuncheon. Hybe and BigHit sent out a memo to the fan base via Weverse app and advised as they have in the past that fans are not to come to the sites where members are being discharged for security reasons and asked that fans stay away from the site and "convey warm regards and encouragement" in their hearts. ARMY did just that by gathering at Hybe, hosting online watch parties, gathering on social media and waiting for the return of 4 more of the 7 members total to return and waiting on Suga as well. 

     Though the final location where the members were meeting up to meet the press was not formally announced to fans, fake fans seeking internet clout including a Brazilian delegation led by a travel agent called Bom Dia Coreia on Instagram, showed up to the site at Chuncheon against Hybe's memo rules and squatted outside of the gates to live stream and stalk the members. They do this for internet attention to get likes and follows and get paid on their monetized accounts. They have since locked down their pages and gone private after being called out for such inappropriate behavior. The press fed their disrespectful actions and allowed them to stay. They returned the next day for Jungkook and Jimin's release and proceeded to scream disrespectfully while the members were conveying messages to the media and ARMY who were watching online. At one point during the broadcast you could see security getting visibly annoyed at the crowd who wasn't supposed to be there anyway. One particularly odd group showed up wearing all black both days as if they were attending a funeral. Sources say they are called anti-fans and the reason they attended in such dreary costumes is still unclear. 

     ARMY online flooded social media with love for all members on their release days and well wishes for the future. RM and V touched ARMY's hearts with their goofy antics. RM showed up playing his saxophone wearing sunglasses to complete the look from the Squirtle meme that went viral and left skipping holding onto V. V displayed his Tata mic innocent face while delivering his speech. Both went on a live stream later on separately to greet ARMY. RM spoke of his struggles and plans for the future and V vibed to some music in one of his trademark short streams that typically last less than 15 minutes.

     Jimin and Jungkook were discharged the day after RM and V as they had served together in the same unit. Both looked happy and healthy as they showed up to speak to the press at Chuncheon. Live streams of the moment were plagued with buffering and loud sasaengs screaming during the speech so ARMY had to rely on online ARMY translators later to convey the message from the two maknaes. Later on they did a joint live stream where they also ate and discussed future plans. Both seemed in good spirits and full of giggles in a room full of flowers and balloons celebrating their return.

     Next up ARMY eagerly awaits the return of Min Yoongi who will be discharged on June 21. Suga's discharge from military service will make BTS whole again as BTS is seven members and the second oldest member and one of the 3 rappers will be back. Suga has been gone the longest due to his assignment to social service in the military. He was assigned social service duty in order to protect his shoulder (which was injured years ago in a car accident) from further damage after having had surgery on it in 2020. Social service assignments last 21 months compared to other assignments that are usually 18 months. 

Things we need to work on as a fandom before BTS returns

      Chapter 2 has been a complete whirlwind of emotions and most of it has been positive. We got so much more content than I ever expected and BTS showed us how much they love ARMY by giving us gifts every step of the way. We made it. Congratulations to all ARMY who stayed and stood ten toes down for the apobangpo spirit, supported them, and never even thought about leaving. To new ARMYs joining during the "break," we welcome you and we welcome the opportunity to help you become strong ARMYs for BTS. 

     That being said the fandom has changed a lot during this chapter and it is sad for those of us that have been here for a while. Someone on Bluesky said it best when they said that the fandom has split between three (major) apps and that's part of the reason we seem divided. We have Twitter ARMY, Threads ARMY, and Bluesky ARMY. Not that we're leaving out Weverse ARMY it's just that as far as ARMY that shares info goes, those three apps are known as the top three now and Weverse ARMY is more known for being a bit immature and unhinged at times. Weverse isn't known as a place to get info unless it is in an official capacity from the company or the guys. It hasn't really been much of a space for fans to talk and share info in a while with all the spam and political propaganda you have to fight through just to get your post seen.

     When BTS reunites as a full group after military service I hope they leave Twitter and go to Bluesky. Twitter continues to be toxic and a place known for engagement bait that breeds misinformation. There are more features built into Bluesky that help you keep your feed clean and because of that I think the fandom would be better organized over there. Threads doesn't have good moderation at all and is becoming Twitter 2.0 in terms of toxicity. There's no way to block a bunch of people at once and there aren't third party nuke apps that go along with it like there used to be for Twitter. With those third party apps, if someone made an offensive post you could block everyone who liked it with one click . Bluesky has blocklists for blocking a bunch of people all at once and they are easily shareable lists. They also have add lists that make it easier to add a bunch of ARMY all at once for those new to the app. I agree with the person who posted on Bluesky that we are all spread out across three platforms and that's why we seem disorganized now. I thank the ARMY who share important information with us on Threads and Bluesky that comes from BTS official Twitter and from the voting and streaming bases on Twitter because I left Twitter and won't be going back till that man is gone (Elon).

     Here are some things we need to work on as a fandom now and when the members return as a group. We have been discussing a lot of different topics and anything that is not here will probably be in another post coming up soon. Some topics mentioned in the post where I was asking for ideas have already been covered in this blog so be sure to check out my other posts as well.

     Voting and Streaming

     Chapter 2 brought out some attitudes that I don't like. I probably cleaned my timeline enough by blocking or muting, but the arguments against voting and streaming have been covered here before on my blog. I also got into the debate between casual and core ARMY and that ruffled feathers. That has been covered in another post here. BTS didn't have a single award just handed to them without hard work and we as ARMY continue to work to give them those awards. Don't want to vote or stream? Then don't come to our comment sections and complain about it. I literally watched someone complain about not having time to vote or stream then proceed to comment on like ten different posts thirsting over guys from other groups. Not a single post about voting for Jin on Mnet. Meanwhile the rest of my moots were posting their votes for Jin, thirsting, and dropping streaming screenshots. We all have busy lives and time is often not about how much you have but about how you choose to use it. Spread voting out throughout the day if possible. You don't have to put in all your votes at the same time depending on the vote window. If a voting app is set to where you can vote 50 times a day like AMAs do 25 or so early and do the rest later. If you want to do it you will.  If you don't want to do it then don't. No one is forcing you but don't you dare come into our comments bitching about not having time or not wanting to because we don't care. Just be quiet about it and stay out of our way. If you want tips on how to manage the time it takes to get it all in then ask. We can let you know how we balance it. You don't get to complain about us losing if you didn't vote and you shouldn't be celebrating if you didn't help contribute either. Just saying. 

     Original 2013 and early days ARMY (OG ARMY) worked hard for them to put them on the map and for that we thank them. It's our job to keep it going and give them the career longevity they deserve. We often say we wish we had been there at debut (ARMY that joined after) but, we're here now so we can do the work now to keep them going into the future. Voting and streaming are important. Voting is how awards are won and streaming helps with charts and Mnet awards (which we also vote for). Mnet voting that we do on weekends and Thursdays (live vote) whenever there is a new release nominated is tied to the MAMA awards and popularity or wins on the show lead to end of the year nominations for daesangs and bonsangs (Korean grand prize awards). 

     If you don't know how to get started there is a resources post in this blog with info on platforms we use for voting and streaming. You can also ask ARMY who usually post about it. There are always ARMY that are willing to answer questions and help with teaching newer ARMY how to do things. We're all constantly learning. I was on Stationhead sometime last year and I was streaming with MoAs (TXT's fandom) and I went to the chat section. They were helping each other learn proper streaming and how to vote on Mnet. That was so cool and inspirational. Meanwhile we had a really popular BTS station that I stopped listening to because they said comments promoting voting and streaming caused stress and anxiety and they don't want that in the chat. They made a whole announcement about it on their station over the air and require you to post on the thread side of Stationhead where info gets buried. Not productive at all but the MoAs were so cute and they made me miss the way ARMY used to be.

   Stop complaining on the timeline about voting. It deters others from wanting to participate and other fandoms and multis are now using it against us to try to convince the newer ARMY not to participate. I realize I have a lot of ARMY that follow me and are moots (we follow each other) that just came into the fandom during enlistment, some just over the past year or the past 6 months even. If we're trying to get them to vote, stop complaining about the most mundane things like ads in the app. Who cares? Yes they are annoying but the main Mnet countdown doesn't charge money or coins to vote. Some do and I don't participate in those because it's not a fair shake. I watched a group that hadn't put out any music in a year or two beat BTS last minute in one of those paid votings because they were buying stars or whatever on some other app and dropping them all during the last hour. When you complain about trivial things, people who never voted see that and figure if you aren't doing it or you don't want to because of ads or because you say you don't have time then it must be too much trouble and they won't vote either. Some of you complain and think because you only have 50 followers it doesn't matter. On Threads your posts may have way more reach than you think. If someone like me with way more followers responds to you then your post is going to get even more reach because that's how the algorithm works. Be aware of the negativity of your complaining affecting the way voting is seen by newer ARMY. 

     Use positive motivation when you encourage others. I saw posts being shared by ARMY that came from solos saying ARMY wasn't being there for Jin. Any posts putting down ARMY after voting usually come from solos. Stop sharing them!! They are miserable and despicable and they always have something negative to say about ARMY. Don't fall into that trap. I've been blocking the solos on sight but I'm going to start blocking people sharing their posts because it's ignorant for them to say ARMYs aren't voting when my timeline is full of ARMY dropping screenshots of their proof they voted. It does nothing but piss off those working hard and diminishes our hard work. 

     We also need to diversify our streaming platforms. I know that Spotify is the favorite of the streaming apps among ARMY because of the numbers BTS have there and the records. I left Spotify Premium a while ago and I only stream on a free account on occasion. I prefer Apple Music which has better sound quality and is cheaper than Spotify for me. Since all streams on Apple are premium there is no confusion as to if your streams count as much as say someone on a free account. Apple has daily charts that are updated in the app though they don't post the number of streams. It makes me sad to see that we don't make a dent in the charts there in most areas but shout out to LATAM ARMY on Apple Music who always bring it in some way when it comes to making sure there is a member of BTS somewhere on the charts in your countries on Apple Music. Focusing on streaming on different platforms like Apple will help with charts as well. Seems like we had gotten into that for a while then moved away from it. I appreciate all the ARMY making Apple playlists and I re-share them when I see them.

Live Stream Behavior

     One major thing we need to clean up is the behavior of users in the chat on live streams. I feel like this is one that we have screamed and screamed about for a while and nothing ever seems to get better. Before the guys enlisted, certain member's live streams were noticeably worse than others and it was annoying. Jin's and Yoongi's always tend to be tamer. Maybe it's because they're older. I also don't remember Jimin's being bad either so the age thing may not be it. I feel like it also depends on the time of day or night. When school is in it seems like the immature ones aren't on as much. When Jungkook did his epic long livestreams and they would fall in the afternoon for me on the East Coast of the US and the chat wasn't so bad meaning he was on really late at night or early in the morning Korea time. 

     We can't control when they go live so that's not an option. A few of us have written Weverse and asked for moderation on streams and haven't gotten anything back but they do make posts every now and then that they put on Weverse with rules that don't seem to be enforced. I posted on their IG before and they had my comments removed for some reason. I have mentioned it in the Weverse surveys that they send when they ask for feedback. Bad comments should be able to be filtered out as should spam and with them charging for digital memberships they should be able to afford to hire moderators to sift through all the comments. Right now ARMY goes into the chat and reports inappropriate comments and spam so we do their work for free to make sure the guys don't see the bad stuff. We shouldn't have to do that, but if we can get people to act with respect to BTS in live streams we won't have to be the moderators of the chat. 

    Here's what needs to go:

• STOP asking them to speak other languages. Frankly no one cares if you can't understand. That's a you problem. Asking a Korean person to speak English or French or Arabic or whatever else when you know their first language is Korean and they are communicating in their native language is rude. Stop it. Learn Korean or pay for the digital membership that gives you subtitles live. You could also watch later when subtitles are added for everyone for free which is usually 2 to 3 days later. 
• STOP spamming country flags. It's not the World Cup or the Olympics. You can just say once "my name is xxx and I'm from xxxx "and post 1 flag. The flag spam clogs the chat and good questions and comments go unnoticed because of the useless spam.
• Repetitive old jokes get annoying and clog the chat as well and need to stop. Spamming "Yoongi Marry Me" will get your comment reported as will asking for other members on someone else's live. That's just rude and that's in the guidelines on Weverse for the chat. Other comments about being this one or that one's wife are spam too. Telling them there's someone behind them is also old and a tacky worn out joke at this point. All the useless stuff is just boring.
• Sexual comments made to them or asking them personal questions about their private lives, dating lives, shipping (taekook forever crap) needs to stop too. Posting thirst comments on Threads is one thing but we DO NOT say those things to the guys in chat and we DO NOT ship them in the chat. 
• Telling them to stop ignoring you will get you reported because no one is ignoring you. They can't comment back to every single comment and you sound like an entitled brat when you post that stuff. Stop spamming junk and trying to center yourself and make yourself look like some poor fan that's being ignored. Ninety-nine percent of those comments won't be addressed. If they don't respond to you, get over it. They won't respond to most of us. Make appropriate comments with respect and you may be seen and answered if you don't act selfish. 
• STOP telling them what to do. You don't control what they eat, drink, or their religion. Those are just 3 things that I can think of right now that I've seen people comment on that are controlling and rude. If Hobi wants to eat meat and that bothers you because you don't eat meat then go be a fan of some vegetarian artist because their lives aren't yours. That's a you issue not one for him or any of the others. If JK is drinking and you don't, no one cares. Go stan a dry artist. His drinking is not your business and you don't get to play amateur psychologist and fake psychoanalyze him and start rumors. You will be reported to Hybe for libel if I see those comments again. You don't get to try to change their religion and you shouldn't be asking them their religion either. Your beliefs are just that, yours. Don't want to stan a group that doesn't follow your religion then don't--go find someone who does and leave BTS alone. You aren't going to marry them so asking them to convert makes you look stupid. Stop it. 

     None of these things is befitting of ARMY behavior. You joined a fandom when you became ARMY and participating in ARMY related activities requires some decorum. Tell them what songs of theirs you like. Tell them how their music helps or heals you. Ask about current or upcoming projects. Ask about food recipes and what they like to eat these days or what clothes or accessories they like. Stop telling them they look sick or tired because that's rude too to someone who is neither sick nor tired but may be feeling low on self-esteem for whatever reason. You just make them feel worse. Our rapport with them should be friendly but respectful.

     Disrespecting ARMY When You Are Corrected 

     We all make mistakes and we are all constantly learning. I would never ever claim to know everything about BTS because every single day I learn something new and I welcome the knowledge. I approach my whole life like that. Never stop learning has been a motto of mine forever. That being said I'm always against misinformation and disinformation. I am seeing ARMY, some newer ARMY, get offended when they post misinformation or AI pics. When ARMY corrects you don't get mad and block people. You could learn something and if you're spreading something because you don't know better, then fact check and delete. We need to stop allowing speculation from K-media, clout chasing accounts posting AI fakes, and people posting incorrect statements to have us sharing things that are wrong. There was discussion about the 1 Verse song by JHope and people were posting that as the new song of the 3 that JHope was releasing. The new song is "Killing it Girl" feat Glorilla out June 13th. One Verse song is on SoundCloud with a ton of other unreleased BTS songs and is old. Someone was corrected about that and blocked the ARMY that corrected them. I've corrected ARMY who pull pics from Pinterest of the guys that are labeled wrong and indexed wrong by the internet. If you are corrected please delete or correct your post. Threads are now indexed and show up when you Google a subject meaning your Threads are used by search engines and AI to compile info. If you are sharing a pic of Namjoon as a kid and it's some guy from another kpop group and you're told that's not Joon and you leave your post up without correcting it, other ARMY who don't know any better are getting wrong information and search engines are using your incorrect data and marking it as correct in their systems. That's how you're pulling mislabeled photos from Pinterest. 

     I was told I should "gently correct" people. I'm not harsh when I correct people. I don't do it to shame. I do it because I don't like misinformation and if I posted something wrong I would want to know and correct it. When you post about voting after voting has closed it confuses people who think there's something wrong with their app when they can't get in to vote. It also tells me you probably aren't really voting yourself if you make a post an hour after voting ends telling people to go vote. 

     If you find that you shared misinformation, the best thing to do is delete it and make a post explaining that what you posted before was wrong and if there is a correction, list it in that post. If you post pictures that are fake delete and add real ones. There are plenty of authentic photos of BTS on Weverse going back through almost all promotions. You can download them straight from there in batches for free. Whenever a member releases concept photos I click on download and "download all" so I get all the ones for that promo. This way I know I'm getting a bunch of official photos. Unfortunately on Pinterest people play with AI and take original photos and run them through Rimini (an AI app) or other AI and they ruin them by adding makeup and eyelashes and double lids on Joon and Tae (Tae has 1 double eyelid 1 mono lid and Namjoon has mono lids on both eyes) and then there's the far fetched ones where Namjoon is covered in tattoos or smoking but it looks cartoon-y or Tae is a big as a wrestler. If you post and you think they're real and you are told they are fake just delete and replace. No problem. 

     We need to be very careful of influencers and big accounts as the guys come back from enlistment. Not everyone is really ARMY and not everyone has our best interests in mind.  My last post was about reactors and a particular "influencer" who has a book out now about ARMY and merch to go along with it, go figure. We need to stop giving everyone who says they like BTS our attention. BTS has been around for 12 years and has been a force around the globe and people know there's money in being associated with that. Even other celebrities are using them to help promote their projects. Some of it is subtle in a way but other things are blatantly attention grabs and engagement farming. There will be people who will pretend to be into BTS for clout (especially on TikTok, YouTube and IG the sites that pay you for the attention you get no matter if it is negative or positive) and there will be people who try to exploit ARMY by making us look like villains as they use negativity to make us mad and draw negative comments to their content. Things have always been like this but as BTS and ARMY grow and other fandoms get jealous and as people who are content creators look for more material we become targets. Let's not be easy targets anymore. 

     This also goes for misinformation in the form of leaks. There are those on Twitter/X especially who are clout chaser "army" and they will make up rumors or pull rumors from K-pop tabloids to run with and people post them to Threads and act like it's real or give it attention it doesn't need. Don't share these things just block and report. If we start starving the toxic influencers and anyone else looking for clout (the ones posting videos and pics of the guys on private time) then we can get them to stop posting that kind of thing and potentially get them to leave our spaces. If they realize they won't get likes and follows then they won't keep using us. We have control of this if we work together.

     There are only a few days left till the process of the remaining 5 members returning from enlistment begins and we are all hyped and beyond excited. We have the opportunity to become stronger and show BTS that while they were away we've matured and gotten stronger but the focus needs to be on how we can help them and not so much on big accounts and individuals seeking attention. We need to show them we can ask good questions in the chat when they're live. We need to be the shield, the Kevlar vest that they used as their first logo and prove that we are indeed bulletproof and we are there to protect them so they get that career longevity they deserve. Apobangpo.

Extra links:

Bluesky tips for ARMY. The site is definitely one worth checking out.

My blog post on misinformation

Voting fan base linktree 

Beware of Fake ARMY Influencers

      There has been a lot of drama on the Threads timeline lately with regard to a certain ARMY "influencer."  As BTS gets closer to their military discharge dates we will see more and more people try to use them for financial gain. In order to keep our space more peaceful and be able to keep it a safe space to fangirl and fanboy in, we need to make sure ARMY is aware of the kinds of people who bait post and try to leech off of our attention for their benefit, which more often than not, is financial gain. We need to push these people out of our spaces and let them know that they can't get away with using us or BTS to grift or make money through shady means off of us and our fandom. 

     BTS ARMY is the biggest fandom worldwide with over approximately 90 million members. BTS is the biggest global group in the world. Concert tickets sell out in minutes as does their merch. They are known as the "Sold Out Kings" because if they endorse an item or product or simply mention using it, it will more than likely sell out quickly. Jungkook mentioned he uses Downy fabric softener once and it sold out across all of South Korea. Downy had to let consumers know it would be a while before it returned to store shelves. The entire brand had a nationwide shortage. Then there was the time Jungkook showed us his kombucha he liked drinking during a livestream and he came back on live stream later on and said it sold out and he couldn't find it anymore because ARMYs bought it out. His little frown was so cute and it was funny but that's evidence of ARMY power. There are so many many other instances of this happening. Companies watch this happen and study the marketability of BTS and the members and how ARMY responds and spends as consumers. Influencers and content creators watch this too and it's not always a good thing.

     I don't watch YouTube or TikTok reactors who show their reactions to BTS videos (with the exception of Jose Ochoa because he's been ARMY for a while so he's real). There are patterns to how some of them operate and it's all to clout chase off of ARMY attention. First they post that they are going to check out BTS for whatever reason. It may start with, "I'm watching BTS videos for the first time because my girlfriend told me to." Then they pretend to get into BTS and "react" to videos giving commentary throughout. It never fails but there will be other fandoms in the comment section saying things like, "if you like BTS you should check out (insert kpop group here) because they're actually better," and the reactor usually likes the comment and takes note. Well meaning ARMY passes the word and shares the reactor's video and recommends other songs and videos from BTS for them to check out. Lots of ARMY will then follow them and they become monetized (able to make money from their videos) and they collect followers that are ARMY from doing BTS related content. These ARMY follow them because they posted BTS and they seem positive, harmless. This is where it gets sketchy. 

     Once these reactors (not all but some do this) get a ton of ARMY following them and they get likes and comments recommending other songs for them to check out they will usually make other videos reacting to BTS songs. Then they move on and they will take recommendations from the comment section. They suddenly need to go through all of the popular groups in kpop and they will start saying negative things about BTS in the process. They make their money off of the engagement whether negative or positive and they move on. There was a guy back when I was on Twitter that everyone hyped up as this amazing reactor who was so cool and he was really enjoying getting into BTS (newsflash they all are) and come to find out he was a raging misogynist who was following incels on his Facebook account. An ARMY called him out on it and he was rude to her and others when they explained that this doesn't align with ARMY or BTS values and all. He didn't care. He just wanted the paycheck he got from his BTS reaction videos. He used that attention to monetize and grow his account and continued to argue when called out on why he would have a fandom of mostly women follow him when he had incel material on his Facebook. This is the kind of grifter we definitely don't need in our space and whose content we don't need to be consuming and making him money.

     There are other influencer types who use ARMY and BTS attention to make money off of us who aren't as easy to spot and ARMY needs to be aware of them too. One is Stefne Miller from Army529project or  Stefap529 on Threads and TikTok. I followed her a while ago but I just didn't really watch her videos much. I think I followed her because she made a video talking about the anniversary of an 80's group that we both grew up listening to and I related to that as an older ARMY and the nostalgia. I paid attention to some of the trivia posted on the Army529project side but mostly ignored her when she talked directly to the camera. Then she made the video that got everyone's attention recently where she made negative comments about RM. 

     ARMYs know that we don't say anything bad to put the guys down. We know the struggles that they have gone through in the past and when you know the history, you come to understand they are human beings like us who work hard for their dreams and goals. Insulting them is unacceptable unless one of them does something terrible and luckily for us that hasn't been the way our guys operate. They are genuinely good people. Not liking songs is OK but why broadcast that? Not everyone wants nor cares for your opinion. The song you hate could have literally saved someone's life. Not liking the leader of the group, a group that would not exist if Bang Shi-hyuk didn't get inspired to start a rap group from seeing RM, is just anti behavior. I don't know why it seems like some people in this new wave of ARMY don't understand that you don't get to call yourself ARMY if you don't like or show proper respect to all 7 members. You can call yourself a casual fan and be done with it. I'm a casual fan of a few other Kpop groups. There's nothing wrong with being a casual fan. 

      Stef made a video where she said that she has never gotten to know RM and she said in the beginning before she even got into the story of the video that she knows that she will attract "haters" from the comments that are coming yet she chose to continue with the video. I won't link it because I don't want to give her more engagement which means money for her so I will summarize. She mentioned that she is enlistment ARMY and that fact alone surprised me because I thought she had been ARMY as long as or longer than I was (I'm 2018 ARMY). She then said, "Here's where the controversial part comes in. No judgement." Now that was giving, "not to be rude but..." energy and I hate it when people do that because you know something rude is coming. She already knew she was going to say something that a lot of people were not going to like so she was rage baiting at that point and she was also asking not to be judged. We knew at that point that whatever she was going to say was going to be negative and we knew it's was going to be about RM because the big title on the top of the video in bold lettering was "MY TRUTH ABOUT RM." 

     After she set the stage by asking not to be judged and saying that ARMY was going to come for her, she proceeded to tell the story she wanted to tell. She said that she never got into RM out of all of the members of BTS (the leader of the whole group whom we know faces the most scrutiny). RM is the one she never bothered to get to know till now. She didn't bother to pay attention to him because his tears and general vibe during the Festa dinner in 2022 made her feel "unsafe." For a writer she's not that articulate in this video at expressing herself. What do you mean you felt "unsafe" because the leader of BTS was crying in a video where they all were all expressing to their massive fandom of dedicated ARMY that they were taking a break? Some of these fans had followed them for nearly a decade and the members were concerned if ARMY would be there when BTS returned. This break ended up being because they were required to join the South Korean military as all able bodied men in SK are required to do. They didn't know if their fans would stay and a two year break in an industry like Kpop that moves like a revolving door with often fickle fans would be a terrifying thing for them. But she didn't bother to do an ounce of research and had just become ARMY or so called "ARMY" so she wouldn't have known how terrifying that would be for them. There is no excuse for that but let's move on. 

     One of the main ARMY rules about how we respect BTS is that we don't compare them to each other in negative ways or pit them against each other because they are seven individuals with different styles and vibes and real ARMY OT7s stick to that. We love them all for their differences as well as their similarities. We don't use their emotional moments and post them on the internet to make fun of them or to keep plastering them crying or showing their sadness to use it against them. I feel like a lot of those values have been lost over this enlistment break as new people have come into the fandom. We acknowledge their humanness and don't act like they aren't able to show vulnerabilities so when they do, we don't go after them for it like it's cringe or negative. In a world where men are told "boys don't cry" and " man up" we as ARMY love that BTS expresses their emotions and cries if they feel like crying. Men in general should be able to cry if they feel like it. That's for a whole other post though, I digress. Every member was upset at that dinner at some point or another. Why you would use that as a gauge of how one of the members is all the time is beyond me. It was one emotional moment in time. Anything you want to know about BTS's history is on YouTube or their official social media channels on IG or Twitter. Any seasoned ARMY would be able to find links or give newer ARMY info or point you in the direction of someone who would be able to answer questions. We will gladly help out. They put out a book that is in their own words called "Beyond The Story: A 10 Year Record of BTS" by BTS and Myeongseok Kang. Stef could've read that and gotten more insight into RM. 

     She said she emotionally "detached" herself from RM because of that one dinner. She could have gone back and watched any of his ending 'ments (what ending speeches are called) from any concerts and seen how warm and loving he is and how much he loves ARMY and the members. Seeing him cry in a 'ment where he says he loves ARMY hits different and she didn't even bother. She says she "didn't feel safe" and that smacks of just general weirdness because, sure she's going through some stuff with her mother's health but unfortunately so are a lot of us. Our parents are ageing. My father is in late stage kidney failure and has a heart condition and dementia. I would never expect an idol to be my total comfort in that area to the point of blaming them for not being there enough for me. This is what she's doing to RM. Putting the weight of her problems on his shoulders and not wanting to look at someone else hurting because she was. Somehow the other 6 were there for her till Jin left. She's married and has other family members. If RM is singled out as not being there for her it's time for her to disconnect from all 7 and go seek comfort in real life people she knows. 

     She mentioned being intimidated by him because he's smart. Another weird statement of hers that doesn't sit right with me or make any sense. Projecting her insecurities on him yet she is college educated supposedly. Her IMDB credentials show that she has worked on Hollywood movies so why is she so intimidated by RM given her supposed success? Something isn't right there and it's seeming like she is faking this whole vulnerable, pitiful, insecure thing to get attention and use ARMY but I will get back to that. At the end of the video she said that she knows "ARMY will cut a bitch" and "don't come after me" is repeated twice. Now if that isn't setting the stage for what happens next I don't know what is.

     Within 2 days she released a second video that one would think would have been an apology but it was just her doubling down on what she said and painting ARMY as villains. She stood by what she said in the first video. She crapped on the vulnerability of the leader of BTS and came back and the first thing she did was not issue an apology for anyone she offended including an apology to RM for misunderstanding him but she mentioned that the video went viral with over 200k views on TikTok. She talked about how people were age shaming her which I agree is wrong, but then she immediately plugged her book. She mentioned that she should make this backlash from ARMY a whole new chapter because the book is her story and it's about how she loves ARMY. She wants to add this chapter as it has to do with ageism. Give me all the breaks because she orchestrated this whole thing to draw attention to the book. The comments calling her a hag were rude and unnecessary I agree, but now she's using that as another angle and younger ARMY who called her that should be ashamed of themselves because they had plenty of other arguments to use against her but age is not one of them. Age shaming in this case is an ignorant thing to do because ageism is not accepted in this fandom. A lot of us are over 30 or 40 and you will get old too if you're lucky enough to live that long so don't ever do that to people please. It's not as cute as you all think it is when you do it and I see you. It also reduces your argument to shallow things like looks and deflects from the real issue at hand.

     She got condescending and said that people didn't know what she meant when she said that she "detached" from RM. She pulled up a ChatGPT definition of it and that was so cringe to me as a writer. She's a writer too. Why use ChatGPT when AI is often wrong?  She couldn't be bothered to pull a definition from a psychology source or at the very least Merriam-Webster's dictionary? I don't know about you but if I don't know or I want to be sure of the definition of a word the last place I would check is AI. I'm old school so I would go to dictionary.com or Merriam-Webster. People knew what it meant. The psychological aspect of  detachment is covered in Psychology Today magazine and she should have just posted a clip or definition from that.

     None of this adds up for me. Since going through all of this there is a lot to unpack about this woman and how she is using ARMY for attention. She even tags BTS members in her posts. She had the audacity to tag RM in her video saying all of that negative stuff about him. This was certainly something that was calculated and planned for attention albeit negative attention. This all happened during Tablo and RM's release of "Stop the Rain" which caused a lot of buzz due to the serious nature of the song. The lyrics are heavy and are about depression and abuse making it hard for some ARMYs to listen to. Because there was so much discourse on line about the song, she used the negative attention surrounding RM, created more drama, and directed it towards herself making herself a victim and then plugging her book. 

     She is the founder of Army529project which has meetups that charge $300 to register and it's like a travel thing for ARMY. When most people plan meetups for their fandoms, they just decide to get together and meet at a location together and they don't charge hundreds of dollars to be a part of hanging out with people in the fandom. You can just get with a few people, plan to meet in whatever city you choose as long as you can get there, and then pay nothing more than the cost your individual accommodations and food and the usual expenses. I remember seeing a former moot on Twitter going to an epic Coldplay meetup through a major Coldplayer fan base where they met at a restaurant for a few hours and Chris ended up joining them. I don't think anyone there paid any more than what their food cost and the cost of gas to get there. The video is on TikTok if you look up "Chris Martin shows up to fan meetup."

     Stef could have done the video after she had explored RM's discography and backstory. Why didn't she? If I was going to admit that I didn't bother to give the proper respect to the leader of the group I supposedly stan and make a video addressing the fandom I'm a part of, what I would have done is make it after I had done the research. In my opinion, this wouldn't have been an issue at all if she had started the video saying that she had neglected him prior but had gone back and done her research and framed it to explain what she had learned as newer ARMY rather than what she had neglected to take the time to learn in the first place. That actually would have been a positive thing to say that she had a preconceived notion about someone and then she did her research properly and changed her mind. But, come to think of it that might not have gotten her the reaction she wanted. She needed ARMY mad enough to get her those views.

     I know this is getting long but let's talk about monetization for a minute. On Instagram you need to have at least 10,000 followers to be able to monetize and anyone that understands social media knows how hard that can be to achieve and how much of a goal it is for some people to be able to make money from being chronically online. She has 9541 followers on Instagram right now as I'm writing this. I'm not sure if Threads is still doing their bonus program but you only need 1,000 followers on Threads once you have 10,000 on Instagram to be monetized on both. She's almost there and I don't think that's a coincidence. Over on TikTok she has over 20,000 followers and that first video hating on RM has over 342,000 views. With 20,000 plus followers on TikTok she's monetized over there too because you also need 10,000 there to get paid and every click on that video and every comment good or bad earned her money and that's sick. She made money off of that one and the one where she is laughing in the comment section about RM losing on Mnet. Now she's looking to target IG and Threads for the same thing along with selling her book and travel meetups all in the name of being ARMY and using BTS. 

     Did she deserve the backlash she faced? Yes. I don't agree with age shaming part at all though. I think we're the same age give or take, pretty sure we're both Gen Xers nonetheless. Her take really has nothing to do with age so she didn't deserve any of that and ARMY that I followed asked people to stop with the ageist comments. I saw my moots commenting to her trying to have a respectful conversation and getting blocked or ignored. I saw her laughing in the comment section when it was mentioned that RM lost on Mnet and using terms that tried to call ARMY a cult like "groupthink," a term used in the book "1984" where the government controlled people and expected everyone to think and feel the same way in a cult like dictatorship. That's not what this is and if she thinks ARMY is like that then she should leave. All we ask is that our fandom likes and respects all 7 members. It's not that hard. We express opinions and play "we listen and we don't judge" and don't crucify others over their opinions. The issue becomes when you put the members down and dislike them. Or when you bash ARMY as a whole and don't take notes when corrected. Why are you even in a fandom if you don't like the group you supposedly stan? To me that says you're here for clout and your own financial gain. Why would anyone stan a group of 7 and be OT6? There are very rare reasons but none apply here, ex: if a member engaged in a criminal act but wasn't removed from the group. That's certainly not the case here.

     So what do we do about these people who target ARMY for attention? We have to get them out of our spaces by blocking, reporting if applicable to the situation (reporting only things to Hybe that they could be sued for like slander or libel), and making sure other people know about them and block them as well. There are a lot of new ARMYs and we need to guide them in the right direction so they don't get their ARMY experience ruined by these people. She's made a comment about not voting, either in AMA or Mnet I'm not sure, that was along the lines that RM didn't tell us to vote so she's not going to. Well had she been ARMY long enough before she tried to be some sort of spokesperson for us with her projects she would have noticed that BTS doesn't make statements asking us to vote in these votings. The official pages usually congratulate the members on nominations but they don't come out and say "vote for us."  They don't even come out and say directly to buy their albums or merch but they do say they hope we enjoy them or show them a lot of love. Funny how she'll flaunt merch purchases without being asked directly by the members to purchase that stuff but voting is different. That kind of attitude from a large very visible account can encourage others to ignore things that core ARMY finds important. The best way to deal with these people is to starve them of attention which hits their money supply. Don't engage with the content, block, report to the platform when necessary and to Hybe if there is slander, and if you have to discuss them keep it to the group chats to not spread their content. They'll get the picture when the algorithm stops favoring them and they start to lose followers and money. Maybe they'll try to grift off of another fandom. Hopefully they give up altogether and go touch grass. 

Ways to tell if a picture is AI

      I'm seeing a lot of AI on my feed again. I understand there are a lot of new ARMY who may not have gotten the memo that we don't do AI pics as ARMY so I take that into account before I block but I don't comment as much as I used to so as to not spread it. The guys have mentioned not liking it or AI voice but some attention seekers love their "edits" or photos of BTS run through AI apps to "enhance" them or create photos that don't exist. I have been blocking people I do not follow and muting those I do who insist on sharing them. If you are told you are sharing AI, you should take the hint and delete. There's way too much disinformation going around in multiple areas and it's disappointing to see fake military photos this deep in their enlistment and to keep having thr same discussion over and over again. 

     There are a ton of photos available on Weverse of BTS that you can be sure are official and not AI. Why wouldn't you just use those? Nearly every album campaign is there and free to download. Once you click on a picture you get a download button in the top right corner. It asks if you want just that pic or the whole file of x amount of pictures. I always do the full file and it usually takes less than 3 minutes to download all of them. You can also go to the official Instagram pages for the members to get real photos of them. Pinterest used to be a good source until it got overrun by clout chasers creating fake pics. I understand it's hard to tell what is real and what isn't so here's the tips I use. 

1.  If it looks cartoonish it's probably AI. If the colors are too saturated and it looks like a drawing it's probably AI. Check for blurring, count the fingers (because AI messes up hands so sometimes you end up with extra hands or fingers in a pic), and other distortions (things seemingly coming from nowhere, non sensical words or languages, letters, shadows are wrong).
2. Check the eyes. Namjoon has monolids (small or no crease in the eyelid). Jin and Taehyung have 1 monolid eye 1 dual lid eye (crease visible in eyelid). Any pictures with them having dual lids are AI or have been put into an app and edited. Yoongi also sometimes has eyelids that have deeper creases on one eye than the other and lately I've been seeing A LOT of edited AI photos of him. People seeking attention are putting his pics out to get attention from us due to our feelings of missing him and that's manipulative. Be careful what you give likes and attention to. 
3. Look for watermarks. For some reason unbeknownst to me people seem to think they own the rights to a photo because they run it through an editor app so they ruin a pic and slap their lil name on it in a cutesy logo. No hun. The owner of the IP is still Big Hit and the artist in the photo. Argue with the wall. So people will edit photos (badly) and add their name so they can act all high and mighty if someone uses their photo in a video edit or something. These usually end up being the ones with overdone makeup (especially on Jimin) where the guys have 1 long eyelash, red lips, and a lot of blush. The watermark is often there around the shoulder or across the chest. And before video editors try to come for me as someone did before when I mentioned watermarks in this context, I'm not talking about you so stay in your lane. This is about photos that are run through AI only. If you see a photo that looks official but has a person's screenname or something as a watermark it's probably AI. In the case that it's not then it may be a fansite photo which is still a no because they use unauthorized BTS photos to sell on their sites or put together art shows with the photos and they make money off of the intellectual property that belongs to BTS and Big Hit which is illegal. They are officially against Big Hit/Hybe guidelines. 
4. Put it into Google lens. If you put it in Google Lens and it only shows up on X, Facebook, YouTube, or Pinterest then it's AI. If it's from a photo shoot then the magazine, the news article, Weverse, or whatever the original source material is should pull up. 
5. Ask. If you ask and don't get a link to a GOOD source (Facebook or Pinterest does NOT count- unless it's BTS's official Facebook), 99.99999% it's fake. I noticed when I ask I get a like on my comment and crickets. That proves the person posting is looking for engagement and knows its fake. They're online liking their comments but not answering what the source is for the pictures they post. That's a red flag.

     That being said we all make mistakes. I have posted AI edited pics before I knew about Rimini (the app a lot of people use). I had a fake RM pic on my screensaver for a while till I questioned the source and realized it was fake. If you get a correction (someone lets you know a picture is fake) just delete it. You can always find something proper to replace it. At this stage in the game there's 0 excuse for posting fake Yoongi military photos (or anyone elses really) and leaving them up after you're advised it's fake unless it's about attention. What happens when all 7 are back from the military and fake AI pics are normalized and allowed and the military photos don't get attention anymore. Attention seekers will probably start sharing fake relationship photos with AI generated women as the love interest. Those will go straight to tabloids and we'll be trying to convince the gullible to ignore, report, and block. Stop making fake AI a thing in our fandom. 

Intentional Misinformation is Not Promo

      There have been several rumors this past week that have gone around social media surrounding Jin's new album and single release. I've seen these things shared on Threads as if they were fact and the things shared on Threads were probably a lot tamer than what was on Twitter. I don't even want to know what went on over there. The clout chasing attention seeking annoys me. By this I mean people who post things to get attention. Some people seem to have this need to be first to share information and to seem like they are the ones with all the tea or info and they make things up or share fake pictures or leaks to get this attention. This is negative behavior to me and is to be avoided.

     The first rumor I saw was a post copied from Twitter saying that Anne Hathaway is going to be in Jin's video for the single, "I'll Be There." Well we know now that that wasn't true. I believed it at first but I don't think I shared it. It was presented as truth and not a joke. A lie isn't a joke to me. I did see well meaning people share it who just didn't know that it wasn't true. Don't spread lies. 

     The next rumor that went around was that Jin will be hosting the MAMA Awards in Nov. This one they actually made a fake clip from a fake article to support. Many people shared this one and I had to stop myself from commenting on every single one that came across my feed as fake news. I reverse searched the text in the fake article being shared and there was not a single hit that came back in search that went back to an actual article. Red flag #1. There should have been a news article that it went back to and there wasn't even a tabloid or K-media link to this. 

     Red flag #2 - not a single post included a link. As ARMY when sharing information we should never be posting news or clips without a link. We all do it from time to time but when there is major announcement information you should be sharing the original link so we can all see the source and read the full article or watch the full video. With video there is a lot that is taken out of context and even edited by some and shared to be made to look the way they want it to look. Context is important. If you post news please add a link from a valid source. Tabloids do not count as a valid source and neither do X/Twitter posts unless there's a link there in that post but it's better to post the actual link than the Twitter post link because those without X/Twitter have very limited access to see what is in Twitter post links. 

     Red flag #3 - The MAMA Awards posts daily on Instagram and they are promoting the tickets for the awards. They have posted the lists and clips of performers at both locations it is being held at this year, Japan and Los Angeles. They started posting presenters last night in 3 separate posts on IG. I don't know if hosts were included in the presenters lists but Jin is not mentioned at all. 

     This rumor is particularly annoying because they went as far as to fake a news report (not the first time someone has done this to lie about something BTS related and ARMY related and called it promo). News blogs in Asia picked it up and are writing articles about it but saying that it isn't confirmed. The fact that they are doing this spreads it. Like fake pictures, it gets put into the search system and pulls up when you search it. Google's AI was pulling it up as a fact on 10/23/24 when I searched it and saying that Jin has been selected as a host of the awards show. I submitted an AI feedback report and I no longer get the same message when I search. I guess they corrected Gemini after the correction in my report. I don't need to explain how bad this is that AI is taking rumors created by ARMY on Twitter and posting them as fact. I know some people shared it because they thought it was real but people may see it and think it's real and plan travel around it and buy tickets expecting him to be there and that's unfortunate. They should definitely fact check before spending money but they wouldn't even have to consider it if ARMY wasn't making up lies in the name of promo. Once again, I don't find lies for promo funny or cute.

**updated: MAMA announced the hosts on 10/29 and Kim Tae Ri will be hosting for the Japan site of the awards and Park Bo-Gum will be hosting on the US site. Jin is not a host of the MAMA awards for this year. **

     The third rumor I saw was just plain stupid. It may sound harsh but I tell it like it is. It was just a stupid post. The account posting it is trying to be a BTS update account on Threads and should have shown more maturity and should have used their platform with more responsibility. This post basically started saying that Jin had been hospitalized. All I needed to see was that and my anxiety kicked in. I was scared for him. Then the post goes on to say it was because he overheated or something cheesy and dumb related to him being hot in a physical attraction kind of way not a fever, temperature, medical emergency kind of way. It's not funny to scare people and even less so to put out there that someone we care about has been put in the hospital. This is putting negativity out there that could come back and actually hurt the person in my opinion. The less that's said that's negative about the guys, the better. This earned an immediate block for the account posting it. It's not ever going to be funny to joke about someone's health in a negative way.

     Apparently this is more crap that started on Twitter because someone got it into their heads that there wasn't enough promo for Jin's album. This is just solo and manti behavior. Why are people acting like this and having the audacity to call themselves ARMY? ARMY protects and supports BTS both as individual members and as seven together. They have told us time and time again that they control their promotions and set things up the way they want to. Not only do they tell us, they show us their process via Bangtan Bomb videos after things come out. How can anyone call themselves a fan and see the hard work they put into every aspect of creation and promotion of their albums, singles, eps, performances and then complain that it isn't enough or wasn't how they would have done it? Well you know what you're at home watching and no one asked you and most people complaining don't work in the industry or have business or marketing degrees so they have no idea how any of this works. There is absolutely no need for all this idiotic nonsense. Jin's promos have been great and just the way he wants them. We are getting clips, photos, schedules for things, in game promos on In The Seom etc every day almost. Why is ARMY acting like selfish solos? 

     This could backfire when it comes to general population or "locals" as we call them. The average person is not going to get that any of this is to get them to listen to a song or an album and if they watch a video expecting to see a beloved celebrity with Jin from BTS and that person is not there they are likely to see ARMY as liars not that it was a "prank." Locals won't stream an album or buy it all of a sudden because they heard Jin was hosting an awards show and they tuned in and he wasn't there. MAMA awards is also not for the weak (hi it's me, I'm the weak). This is one of the longer shows and the timezone differences can be brutal for international viewers. Buzz will be generated and people will be let down and once again see the fandom as a joke. 

     There are going to be people who say, "it's not that serious" or "it's just a joke" and as I said , I don't see it that way and many others don't either. When you have an account with over 20k followers and would rather post rumors than voting and streaming encouragement then you have a problem. Period. Unfortunately, the internet has changed journalism and fact checking has become a thing of the past. I linked an article written about Jin hosting the MAMA awards but there were several, all from Asian based publications. The media scrapes through Twitter and uses ARMY tweets as quotes (and solo too-maybe I'll cover that another time) and writes whole articles based on what is said. They angle their articles positive or negative depending on how much drama they can stir up. Instead of the kinds of articles where they talk to people personally via phone, email, or in person, they now use Twitter posts. Twitter of all places...used as pull quotes too. This is unprofessional to me and they don't even ask or get permission because the posts are public. Threads is now able to be indexed on Google meaning your Threads show up in search now just like Tweets do so I don't doubt they will be using Threads and Blue Sky posts as well soon so be careful what you share or engage with because you are amplifying it. 

     With all of the lies we fight from K-media and tabloids why would we condone ARMY putting out fake news and allowing our own community to be contaminated with it? People who fight misinformation are already tired of explaining to people that things put out there for attention and clicks are lies. It's exhausting. I will be blocking and muting people who continue to share these things. Jin's promotions are his choice and are great. If you can't trust that then you aren't ARMY to me. Don't like his promo or want to add to it? Make your own graphics- not lies but date/time/ name of album or song etc and put it out there. Share the ones already out that graphic designer / editor ARMY are putting out. Or how about just sharing your streaming or voting screenshots. That's better promo than lies. 

     Knowing how much Jin loves ARMY I couldn't imagine how upset he would be that people took it upon themselves to spread rumors as promo and that they call themselves ARMY but don't trust the marketing decisions made by the members for their individual projects. They are seven different men with distinctive tastes. Everyone's promo is not going to look the same nor should it. This is basic common sense. People need to learn to stay in their lane as fans and stop trying to control things the artists do. This looks like sabotage rather than promo and it makes the fandom look bad. Stop participating in this mess. 

What's With The Recent Mass Bullying in Kpop?

      About two months ago, we BTS ARMY were in the trenches fighting for Yoongi during the scooter incident. He dropped a scooter on its side, a kick board scooter with a seat like teens ride in the US. This was not a motorcycle or Vespa type but a lightweight little scooter. Not rehashing everything here but we ARMY fought Korean media who set out to destroy Yoongi's reputation with lies and misinformation (things I'm convinced they knew were lies but ran with anyway not anticipating the power of ARMY to call them out on it.) We fought and we protected Yoongi the best way we could and we did that alone.

   Other Kpop fandoms either went silent offering no sympathy or they participated in the hate train against him making things worse. You see, I haven't forgotten the malicious fake ARMY TikToks they did encouraging drunk driving and pretending it was ARMY posting them. I haven't forgotten the pictures taken from Pinterest and the hashtags they trended on Twitter creating a fake Suga challenge. When Yoongi was being bullied and having death threats and wreaths sent and having fake forums set up online with fake fans pushing for him to leave the group, they didn't reach out. They didn't band together to shout loud for us. They joined in and laughed in our faces. Like bullies do. 

     "ARMY only has BTS and BTS only has ARMY" we said as we re-charted Agust D songs and made block lists to keep negativity off the timeline. We did a K-media blackout and forced some agencies to apologize (however half-assed these so called apologies were). Banners of support were put in front of Hybe and all over from International ARMYs showing love and support for Yoongi. A few individual celebrities showed support and Coldplay's massive fanbase of Coldplayers offered support and encouragement as did Brazilian Beehive. We got nothing from kpoppies but we didn't expect anything anyway so it came as no surprise. One thing we did say was this bullying is a major issue and if it can happen to us (BTS/ARMY) it can happen to you too (other Kpop groups). 

     Fast forward to now. We're right back in the trenches again. A whole new wave of hate trains started and it feels like deja vu with a little 'I told you so' thrown in. A mass malicious campaign to kick Seunghan out of Riize took place and however things went down, he's no longer an official member of the group. The same thing haters and (probably paid) malicious actors tried to do to Yoongi happened to Riize. Seunghan didn't do anything wrong to be kicked out and neither did Yoongi for them to call for his dismissal. But this mass bullying "worked" because SM didn't stand behind their artist. 

    Riize fans have called for ARMY to help and ARMYs have shared petitions and shared hashtags in support. I made a comment the other day that I was staying silent though I agree he was treated unfairly and I wish the best for him in the future. Funny how ARMY is accused if being so toxic but when other fandoms need help some ARMY are willing to lend a hand despite not getting anything in return. I said I would stay in my lane and be quiet but something else happened to change my mind.

     As I watched the rest of Kpop support Riize, including some ARMY. The hate train shifted back to Yoongi. Why? It's been two months. His case is over. He paid an unfair fine and it's done. Well the haters figure they got rid of a Riize member so they're coming at BTS again. Well Hybe isn't SM and neither is Big Hit. BTS owns their company so Yoongi isn't going anywhere. ARMY is back in the trenches standing up for Yoongi as always. BTS is 7 and will ALWAYS be 7. 

     Haters sent funeral wreaths to intimidate Seunghan. This is a malicious practice of bullying that is somehow a trend in South Korea now where Kpop is concerned. Sending death wreaths as if to say 'you're dead' or 'your career is dead'is the way hate is expressed by cowardly bullies who hide their faces behind medical masks as they send giant funeral wreaths with taunting statements on them attached to ribbons adorning the flowers. These are floral arrangements meant for sending condolences to families of the deceased. They left the wreaths up so he could see them as he left the building. How this is allowed and tolerated in South Korean society, one that already has a high suicide rate, I have no idea. You would think this kind of intimidation and bullying would be punished. I mean you fall off a scooter and they call for your head on a silver platter but sending death threats in the form of funeral flowers is fine. God forbid you have a relationship as a Kpop idol but death threats in the form of funeral flowers is fine apparently. I saw a video where fans had left supportive messages for Seunghan and he got the chance to read them and that hit my heart some kind of way. I'm glad he was able to see that and I hope it drowns out all the hate. 

   The funeral wreath bullying came back to Hybe. The people who did it were caught on camera because they had the audacity to stay onsite at Hybe with the wreaths. They were boo'ed by International ARMYs as ARMY made sure to stand their ground and show love and support for all 7 of BTS particularly Yoongi who is the target of these haters. Food trucks and message trucks helped overshadow the negativity of the disgusting wreaths. ARMY wearing purple and carrying purple ribbons chanted the 7 members names known as a fan chant and calmly protested against haters in front of Hybe. ARMY on social media made memes and TikToks sharing support and thanks for ARMY that was available at Hybe to represent the fandom. They also shared the footage of the bullies so people will know somewhat who is behind this malicious behavior. Threads ARMY as well as Twitter ARMY reported as much as we could to the new Hybe portal. 

     As we went about reporting accounts we found out that there were other attacks supposedly planned against Enhyphen and Shinee. I don't listen to any of these other groups but at this point that is irrelevant. I'm ARMY only but the more I heard about this the angrier I got. I don't want to see anyone get hurt no matter what group they are from and this now feels like it is bigger than just a bunch of brainless antis. This seems like a coordinated attack and someone in the industry is behind it. Several lines have long since been crossed and exorbitant amounts of money have been shelled out for these very expensive funeral wreaths. They can go for about $4k each! There were multiple wreaths lined up side by side totaling possibly over $20k and up for a whole line of them. I don't think the average hater sitting behind a computer has that kind of money to flush down the toilet. I know they do some fundraising but, are there enough of them to have raised about $20k plus in a few days to pay for all these wreaths? I don't know. It's possible but in my opinion not as likely.

     I have a theory that seems to be one shared a bit certain social sites. My theory is that Min Hee-Jin or MHJ is behind this. It's just an opinion at this time, a theory. She is the former manager (who knows what is going on with that messy situation but as far as I know I will say former manager) of NewJeans who has beef with pretty much all of Kpop right now. She has several lawsuits going on with Hybe, Belift, and Source music. You can read all about it here because this article sums up the drama better than I could. She wants to destroy BTS because apparently she thinks Bang PD stole the idea for BTS from her. This is a pattern that will continue and sounds like narcissistic behavior to me. She has openly stated that she will use whatever she can to bring about their downfall and will use whatever media she can even if the stories are not true. This makes me speculate that the whole scooter incident was possibly a setup. It's not unfathomable that someone she hired tailed Yoongi after work when he went out with his colleagues in the service and this person knew he was drinking and called the police giving his location and saying that he had been drinking. He was followed by those cops as we see on the video. They didn't just appear out of thin air. 

   MHJ used to work for SM as a creative director. Both Riize and Shinee (ok just noticed the names, trying not to giggle because that's cute) are with SM Entertainment. I don't know the circumstances of her leaving SM but Google says burnout which seems a little bland to me. Not downplaying burnout because it is a real thing but I doubt that's why. Other rumors are that there was an issue with the concept she was planning for a girl group and her concept was rejected by higher ups and they decided to focus on developing NCT. This is just a rumor and not confirmed. But if this is the case then she may be trying to get revenge on SM's boy groups. Her thinking seems to be that she does no wrong and everyone else just takes from her.

     Riize was targeted by hate trains to get rid of Seunghan who was on "hiatus" for having had a girlfriend prior to becoming a member (as far as I know). Another dumb reason to kick someone out of a group. I mean to be real SM has a dirty history with how they treat their talent and they also have had criminals in their midst that have seen and hopefully will see jail time for actual crimes. To kick someone out for dating is just stupid. It may sound harsh but in the rest of the world, like Yoongi's scooter mishap, this wouldn't have even raised eyebrows. After the hate campaign, Seunghan was removed from the group. According to fans of Shinee they are the being targeted next on the list with haters going after Onew. I don't know the details of why the hate train is coming for him and Shinee but it doesn't even matter because none of this makes any sense. By that I mean it's all just hate for hate's sake and none of the reasons will make sense because none of these artists deserve this at all. There's no way to justify any of this at all.

     The targeted hate trains are going after Enhyphen as well. There are two members of Enhyphen they are planning to target to get them kicked out of their groups. I have no idea why they would want to kick them out either but Enhyphen is with Belift Labs which is the same company that Illit is with. Belift is suing MHJ due to her allegations of plagiarism against Illit. See the pattern now? Everyone according to her has stolen choreography or concepts or something or other from her. I hope all these other fandoms fight back and fight back hard and smart and I hope these other companies actually stand behind their artists and won't let haters win in their bullying. 

     MHJ's karma is coming. Whether she is behind this particular shit storm of events or not she has done enough. She made he bed and now she has to lie in it. Hybe will have their hands full dealing with what's to come with her and I hope they make all the right decisions there and don't try to be lenient with any punishments to her or anyone else involved with interfering, bullying, or attempted sabotage of other groups. 

     What can we do? There are petitions going around and they can be effective if used the right way. I will link the one I signed. The hope is that the media will see the petitions (I guess by scrolling through the site? ) and articles will be written and these causes will be brought to the attention of the people who need to see them. Ideally since this one is really gaining traction and has over 10k signatures now, someone on the South Korean side would take the petition and print it out with all of the signatures and comments. It needs to be formally presented to people who make laws so they can see that there is a global interest in ending the use of these funeral wreaths as a bullying tactic. They also need to know that this is an issue bringing negative attention to the country and how it is perceived globally. Allowing these people be bullied , publicly shamed, and sent death threats is wrong. Here is the link to the petition if anyone wants to sign. It can't hurt to try. 

     Idols are human beings and deserve to be treated with respect. If you don't like an artist it takes nothing to mind your own business and keep scrolling. Focus on what you do like without trashing other artists who are also working hard to make it in a difficult industry. I never understood hateful culture of anti-fans. Idols should be able to date in peace without being kicked out of the group for it or dropped by their label. A very minor mistake like Yoongi's riding on a scooter after having a few drinks (a little kick board scooter) should be forgiven and don't warrant calls to be forced out of the group. No one thinks of what this does to a person's self-esteem and mental health. Losing a career can be devastating and haters sitting behind a computer and hiding behind a mask shouldn't get to ruin people's lives while the public closes their eyes to bullying.

***Media: Check out this video starting at 9:24 for more info on the Min Hee Jin/ Belift/ Source Music drama 

Asian Entertainment and Culture YouTube 

Beware of Blue Checks

      Blue checks used to mean something good on social media. I used to be a sign that you were on an official page for a celebrity or public figure and that what was posted was coming from that person or their team. For less famous people with blue checks it meant that they had achieved some kind of status symbol, clout, that meant that they had arrived somehow at being popular enough for a verified seal on their account confirming that that account was their official one. That was all cool until Elon Musk came to Twitter with his fascist views and unhinged unstable behavior causing advertisers and users to leave in droves. In order to try to keep users and advertisers on board and make back some of the money he was losing, he decided to charge for blue check verification as a subscription and open it up to anyone and everyone. To get a blue check all you had to do was subscribe to a monthly paid plan. This is when things started going way down hill and they haven't stopped tumbling yet.

     Because people bought the hype and started paying for Twitter and getting blue checks, there is no longer any real credibility on any social media sites for celebrity accounts. Impersonators use celebrity names in their display name and get blue check subscriptions on not only Twitter but Instagram,Threads, and Facebook now. Because Twitter started it and it worked, all of the other major social media sites followed suit and offered the same thing, paid verification. Public figures have to constantly put out notices advising users not to fall for scams using their names because now that anyone can use the name and put a blue check beside it, you don't really know if an account really is the celebrity you think it is. You can't even always go by how many followers they have now because if 1M people fall for the same fake account then that account has 1M followers despite being fake. Platforms don't really do much anymore when you report impersonators. I have reported more BTS impersonation accounts  on Threads/ Instagram than I can count and I don't think a single one was ever taken down. Hybe/Big Hit put out a statement recently on X/Twitter advising ARMY to beware of impersonation accounts. There are official lists made by ARMY on X/Twitter and Threads that point out the real BTS accounts. BTS doesn't have any individual accounts for members on X/Twitter (just a joint account and Big Hit official account) and none of the members nor Hybe nor Big Hit is on Threads at all as of the writing of this post. 

     Beyond just getting to seem like a celebrity, having a blue check provides you with incentives like supposed better customer service if your account gets hacked. Twitter offers longer posts to blue check holders by allowing them more characters, the ability to edit posts, supposedly a better reach meaning posts guaranteed to be shown to more people on the app and the most diabolical of all incentives- pay for play with regard to engagement. Now I'm not saying that creators, editors, shouldn't be paid for their content. People who use it for good are fine. The blue checked ARMY accounts who got checks to protect their accounts from hacking (if that even really works) or to get more characters so you can make longer posts without having to break them into several threads, that 's all understandable. They subscribe for valid reasons. I'm not knocking those choices because that'a a legit reason to get a blue check. The issue I have is the misuse due to monetization incentives.

     On Threads you can qualify for the Threads Bonus Program. I believe the criteria is you have to have 1000 followers or more on Instagram and decent engagement according to IG. Not sure how many you have to have on Threads to qualify. Once you get into the program you are paid based on posts on Threads as long as they stay within the guidelines of Threads, IG, Meta. This has led to the same thing with blue checked troll accounts on Threads seeking engagement through manipulative means like the ones on Twitter. On Twitter, BTS related posts get bombarded with troll spam comments from blue check trolls. You can tell they aren't ARMY because they often are footballer bro squad types with Ronaldo or some footballer as their profile picture or memes as their profile pic. They go under posts about BTS that are popular and say rude things in order to rile up ARMY into commenting back to them. The comment equals engagement and if they get enough of that - the comments , good or bad, they get paid. They will play the evil role of making hateful comments to make ARMY mad enough to comment back or some will pretend to be interested in BTS and will ask questions or make praising comments that are fake just so they can get ARMY to comment something positive back because all comments count towards their paycheck. In my opinion fake baiting positive comments are manipulative too so I steer clear if something looks fishy because I've seen people pander to ARMY to get attention then just when they have a ton of ARMY attention they turn on BTS and ARMY.  They get pulled into fan wars or get attention from other fandoms who want them to listen to and promote their guys. We've seen this happen with "reactors" on YouTube. 

     The other side of this is the blue check rage bait paid accounts. They make whole threads that are engagement bait hoping to get people angry so they will argue and the poster will get paid based on views and comments likes and shares. These are the people posting rude things like, "which fandom is the most toxic" and "which member of BTS is the hottest?" (seemingly innocent question but put out to make people argue about their looks and draw solos and visual stans into confrontation with OT7. ARMY is the largest most active fandom and these trolls know it. They use ARMY for engagement. The person posting the last question wasn't even ARMY and the first question was a set up to get fan wars started in their comment section. Trolls think that hiding their IG link will stop people from going to their IG to check them out. Well I will still go and sometimes that is the most telling of all. Asking questions to ARMY to get engagement when you stan another group and never mention BTS or don't follow them on IG is a giant red flag to me. Threads says they are looking at ways to combat engagement bait posts but I will believe it when I see it. 

   When you see posts like this it should be an instant block. I know I have caught myself responding before but I am reminding myself to stay focused and just block. Don't pay their bills by commenting. Don't quote to make a comment, don't re-share, don't screenshot to discuss because all of these things count as engagement. It's best to ignore. If you see a page that's claiming to be Big Hit, Hybe, or any member of BTS on Threads and it is blue checked, as of now it is fake. In the future always ask other ARMY or look for the official list (which I will post on the information page on this blog). If something seems suspect like you are suddenly seeing bait posts, swipe "not interested" and block. There are several accounts that don't have blue checks that still do the bait post for engagement thing hoping to get likes and follows. Just avoid it at all costs and resist the urge to comment. Trust me I know the urge to clap back is strong and I have fallen for it myself but taking a breath and not giving these accounts what they want is better than telling them to f -off.