Threads Is Not Twitter, Let's Keep It That Way

 TW: talking about things that have happened on Twitter so I feel like I may need a TW for self-harm, suicide, cyberbullying

 This week’s post is somewhat of an extension of last week’s post in that I want to discuss my thoughts on Twitter and Threads. They are two different apps and I feel like the influx of new users (and some older ones) on Threads don’t get that. I made a post on September 2nd in the morning reflecting my thoughts because I scrolled and saw three posts nearly in a row that would never have been there on ARMY Threads six months ago. Two were fan war starters and I was like, “nope, I'm definitely saying something,” so I did. The first comments were in agreement then came the noobs (new ARMY accounts that haven't been on the app longer than six months). Some of them seem to be the ones causing drama or excusing the drama. I was told I should go try Blue Sky if I wanted a “clean” app. I don't expect any social media to be “clean” whatever that means. I do expect ARMY to do better though, and if you call yourself ARMY you should want to do better. We don't do fan wars. Certainly not ones we start by saying “I hate (insert fandoms)” and proceed to post screenshots of hate tweets from X/Twitter or “proof” the fandom is trash based on one person acting maliciously. We keep it in the group chats and not out in the open instigating arguments. 

     Threads came to be a year ago in July 2023 in response to Twitter being taken over by Elon Musk who ran the platform downhill fast. The shit show that Twitter became under Musk is all his doing. I was on the app and I followed people who worked for Twitter/X that lost their jobs. They explained that things were going to get a lot worse before they ever got better. I watched as security that handled protecting people from abuse became pretty much non-existent. Then there were the glitches or so called glitches where users couldn’t post or could only like a set number of posts per day or over a 24 to 48 hour period and were restricted from then on. Rumor was that if you paid/subscribed to Twitter Blue (I think that was the name of it) then you could like more posts and comment more without restriction. So Musk decided to start trying to push users into payment plans/subscription tiers in order to have a better user experience on the app. I wasn’t paying for that. Not when an app that I used to enjoy decided that “free speech” (read: hate speech) was allowed unless it was directed towards Musk or anyone he defends.  So for a while I bounced back and forth between Twitter (which also went through a name change to X but no one calls it that) and Threads. 

     I learned the best things from Twitter ARMY and I also have seen the worst bullying that I have ever seen in my life happen on Twitter. The thing is all the crap is not worth wading through to get to the good part for me. I will never forget how kpoppies all came together in a mostly fake show of solidarity the day Moonbin passed away. I stayed out of the conversations surrounding mental health because to be honest, they were largely performative and it made me sick to my stomach to see some of these fandoms pretend to give a shit when they put people in the hospital or grave by bullying. Suddenly fandoms who photoshopped BTS members with self-harm marks, celebrated the death of cancer victims who were family members of ARMY or artists who worked with BTS, and mass shooting victims who were ARMY or friends of BTS, and doxxed others to put their info on porn sites gave a shit about mental health? Yeah spare me the fakeness. I would find out just how fake the "mental health matters" posts were less than 24 hours later.

     Another vile part of Twitter is all the solos, antis, shippers and all manner of weirdos who can’t bother to be normal fans of all the members of BTS. Solos are antis who hate all members except the one or two they stan. They are akgaes. They leave traps sometimes in order to start fights or they will go fishing for like minded solos to join their side of fandom, the dark pathetic side. Nothing wrong with having a bias because that’s not the same thing. You can be OT7 and have a bias like I do or just not have a bias at all. Solos openly express hate for all other members except their favorite. They stan the one member and not the group and will go as far as to exclude other members from their streaming and consuming of content.

     That being said, the day after Moonbin passed, I was on Twitter and some J-Hope anti made a post excluding J-Hope. I didn’t realize it was an anti account and don’t remember who they were a solo of. I didn’t realize it was a set up post either. It was set up to bait people like me who are OT7 into arguments. The screen name suggested they were a BTS fan because they used a member’s name and something else -maybe they had a little seven in the name too (a lot of us do including some fake ARMY). Seeing this post, I quote tweeted them and said something harmless like “Don’t forget Hobi.” Apparently that triggered an alarm for them to bring out the psycho bitches and out they came. I was getting comments like, “Go die,” “kill yourself.” and I was called stupid when I responded trying to figure out what all of this was about and I spelled a word wrong. I was so done with these losers. All this vitriol because they were downplaying a member of the group I thought we both were stans of. I realized after looking through their account that I had been played by antis. I took the bait and they came to chew me up and spit me out. I blocked the ones commenting but reported them first (of course nothing happened to their accounts because it’s Twitter, they don’t protect you from bullies anymore). Then, I ran a nuke block on everyone engaging with that post (nuke block was a site where you put in the URL of the tweet or link to it and it blocked everyone who liked it). I was so upset I took 48 hours or so off of Twitter. I logged out and stayed off. So much for everyone coming together the day before to advocate for mental health awareness and being kind to one another. Such bullshit. 

     I did some research when I got back online and the person running that account turned out to be a guy from India posing as a girl who pretends to like BTS. He has multiple accounts for rival fandoms who are always in ARMY business bullying ARMY. Makes sense. His IG account gave him away. I blocked him on all of my IG accounts and from that point further, I engaged less and less with anyone’s Twitter accounts. Not that I got that much engagement there anyway. It says something when you comment on a post or make a post and you get the notification that someone responded and you cringe a little because you automatically anticipate that it's some troll or some anti coming to your comments to be a jerk. You kind of develop a bit of anxiety about commenting or getting comments back. I don't know if anyone else gets that but I had that when I was on Facebook and on Twitter. This incident made it worse. I don't get that anxious feeling about my notifications on Threads though. 

     I had been on the app (Twitter) for 6-8 years I think and my personal account just became my stan account when I decided to join ARMY online. At first it was fun but it quickly became clique-ish. I noticed big accounts all talked to each other and people who talked a lot about voting and streaming got a lot of crap from solos. Playlist accounts even got bullied for posting playlists. Why? Because they were OT7 and solos didn't like that they spread focused playlists that included all 7 members as well as the focused releases. Meanwhile these solos were spreading looped playlists that sabotaged the streams and caused plays to be stripped on Spotify resulting in sabotaging the member's numbers they were trying to boost. Brainless behavior on full display there. 

     Over a year into learning Korean self-study I could tell that some of the translators were playing with words for engagement. I never said anything but waited till one got called out for lying. When I knew she lied about what was said I blocked her and others backing her up. A mistake is one thing but a full on mistranslation that a beginner/intermediate speaker picked up on–yeah get out of here with that. 

     As Musk’s antics got worse and worse, stupid things continued to happen to push my buttons and push me right out of that dumpster fire app. I got suspended for 24 hours for saying I hoped a guy’s Tesla would catch fire. There was a video going around of a guy chasing other cars on the road, cutting them off, and blocking them so they couldn’t go anywhere, and bashing their windows out. I wished for the downfall of a car and got suspended but people wishing death on others daily got no punishment. I started getting offensive ads that pushed fascist ideology (I’m in the US) and pushing Christian Nationalism. I tried to block ads which I could do, at first, and then I kept getting pop ups saying this was no longer allowed and I needed to subscribe to get rid of ads. Nope! Not paying to keep from seeing things that shouldn’t be there. So I deleted my account this past spring and never looked back.

     Let me reiterate that, I never looked back. I wish I had saved my bookmarks with receipts and links to some info but other than that I don’t miss the ever burning dumpster fire. At first I thought I would miss out on information about BTS, but I realize the best information will come from the official Big Hit Instagram and Weverse accounts. Yes the guys are still on Twitter and the account still posts but anything there will eventually be on their Instagram or Weverse. Even if it isn't, I have accounts I follow like @/dalbitbangtan and @/samaya_bangtan_girl on Threads who keep me updated on official news from BTS_TWT the official Twitter for the members. For me it wasn’t worth going through the hellscape to get information. I’d rather be a little later getting info than getting it ASAP and risking seeing something upsetting or being bullied on the way to getting info. Some people pop back and forth and that’s fine for them but it’s not going to work for me so I only have Threads and IG and I’m fine with only those as my socials. 

     Having Threads and having it be new at the time, I sought out other ARMYs and we came to the collective conclusion that we have a unique opportunity on Threads to redo what went wrong and continues to go wrong on Twitter. We want to create a space where ARMY of all walks of life feel safe and able to be themselves. No bullying and no spreading Twitter drama and fan wars in our spaces. No clout chasing with gossip from tabloids or unauthorized photos (real or faked with AI), no spreading rumors, and no age shaming. ARMY like BTS is also LGBTQIA+ inclusive so there’s obviously no discrimination allowed nor ableism. I also don’t believe in being a larger account than someone else and not responding to people. That’s so middle school. I experienced that a lot on Twitter where larger accounts wouldn’t even acknowledge that you said happy birthday to them with a like or comment back. You could ask a genuine question and no one would answer you. Sometimes other small accounts would answer, hours or days later. I try to help everyone and engage with everyone who engages kindly with me regardless of how many followers we have. 

     There are a lot of ARMY just coming over to Threads and we welcome you. Those that are relatively new may not be following anyone who was there when we first decided to make Threads an ARMY safe space and may not know but I’m saying it and have been saying it. We need to get it together because there are people trying every single day to tear ARMY apart and not to get into that, but we need to decide how we plan to move forward as a fandom. Some things need to be put aside and others just need to be handled better.

     One thing I really want to address here is anger and spreading hate and negativity that comes from Twitter. I left Twitter because of all of the hate being spread by antis. Why are there people bringing it from Twitter over to Threads? I don’t need to see screenshots of what some anti account says about BTS while I am scrolling Threads. There is no point in posting a Twitter screenshot and clapping back at the hater in the post on Threads. They can’t see it unless they are on Threads and in that case you should find them and tag them because we do not care. Anyone that wants to see that kind of rubbish can go to Twitter to see it. Why not clap back to them right under their post on Twitter? Oh because you don’t want drama? Well don’t bring it onto Threads because we don’t want it either. Don’t start fan wars on Threads because we don’t do that there. You aren’t adding anything valuable to the community by sharing drama. I am blocking the accounts that do this because I left Twitter for a reason. I’m not trying to see people make Threads into Twitter 2.0. We can choose the kind of content we want to see and participate in and boost that. 

     So if you see anything on Twitter and it upsets you because haters are in ARMY’s business, instead of spreading that, you can send it to the Big Hit legal team (via their website ) and block and report the account/post. You don’t need to run to Threads with it. You could leave something positive on either or both platforms to combat the negative. If you need to talk about it keep it to your DMs or group chats because sharing it spreads it. You are spreading negativity. Haters will always hate and there really is nothing we can do about it but try to get as many of them sued as possible. When it hits them where it hurts they will probably tone it down but sharing it and complaining won’t do anything but upset people who didn't know before you brought it to their timeline now more people are upset and ranting. 

     I don’t say any of this to try to be bossy or control what people post because ultimately they are going to be posting whatever they want to their pages but in case people wonder why they get less engagement or aren’t getting more followers I will be blocking negative posts from Twitter that aim to start drama rather than to inform. I hope other ARMYs will do the same. I know there are some that like gossip and rumors and even some that like fan wars. I don’t and I don’t want to see it. The difference in energy on the timeline when it's release day or during a release week vs when a bunch of drama is being spread and everyone is chiming in their opinion on something some loser on Twitter said about the guys is so different. Basically if it isn't an update from the official Big Hit Twitter or the guys Twitter, a fact checked update from a chart account about a milestone, something fact checked from a fan base that's not a stalker post or something otherwise informative that's not shade throwing or negative then keep it on Twitter and not on Threads. 

      Leaving Threads for another platform isn’t it for me right now. Eventually all of the trouble makers will make additional accounts on the other apps too and none of them will be any better than the others. At this point all we can do is acknowledge the spread of negativity and misinformation and try to do better at keeping it out of our spaces.

Update: 12.10.24 I joined Bluesky but I also keep Threads. What led to me joining Bluesky was the influx of negative accounts joining Threads and Meta/Threads lack of moderation to protect people from bullying and misinformation. The downfall of Twitter and mass exodus to Bluesky has led to many good informative ARMY accounts going to Bluesky and I found accounts I used to follow there that aren't on Threads. Bluesky does have better moderation in the form of filters and blocklists. Staying on both apps for now.

Bullying Other Artists Online Needs To Stop

     Depending on who you talk to, BTS ARMY is either a toxic fandom and one of the worst in Kpop or one of the best, most organized and dedicated, loving fandoms. I have seen a lot since I became ARMY and I believe the latter. ARMY is an amazing fandom that I am proud to be a part of. I am even happier being ARMY knowing the community that we have started on Threads that is focusing on being more positive and having hard conversations but keeping them civil. That’s why this topic of cyber bullying other artists needs to be addressed as well. I know the majority of this won’t apply to the real ARMYs reading this but the solutions will so bear with me for a moment. 

     On July 26, 2024, Fred Jewelry announced that they had signed Chinese actress and singer, Guan Xiaotong as their second jewelry global ambassador. The 26 year old Xiaotong is very popular and is considered the Nation’s Daughter in China. She comes from a family of actors, has been in a ton of films, and has won several awards. Fred Jewelry made an announcement on their official website but I found out via their Instagram feed. Of course many ARMYs like myself followed Fred Jewelry's Instagram because of Kim Seokjin’s becoming their first global ambassador ever. My first thought seeing Guan Xiaotong was, “wow she’s gorgeous.” Then I went to the comments and that quickly changed to “damn it here we go again!”

       I was annoyed at the comments complaining that people wanted to see Jin and asking where he was. There were comments saying that Fred weren’t using Jin enough despite him having dropped a full campaign with W Korea a week prior and that whole series being all over YouTube and social media. He also has a page on the Fred site where you can shop the exact looks if you are financially equipped to do so (and assuming they are in stock with BTS being the “sold out kings” that they are). If they wanted to see Jin as an ambassador for Fred there was plenty of newly released content for them to watch. The problem was they decided to go on this woman’s announcement post and be rude which is unacceptable behavior.

     The accounts I noticed doing this didn’t seem to be ARMY. They seemed to be Jin solos. Going through screen names and profiles told me as much.  I went to Threads and asked for ARMY to go to the post and leave positive comments to drown out the bad negative ones. Leaving fresh positive comments and liking the other positive comments makes the negative comments get pushed to the bottom as least popular. ARMY went and left positive comments and now you have to scroll to get to the bad ones. Some of the solo accounts called out the other ones that were being rude and told them that they were potentially damaging Jin’s image by being disrespectful to Guan Xiaotong. It makes perfect sense that a jewelry company would have both male and female spokespersons because they sell jewelry for men and women. Even if it is mostly unisex, buyers want to see what it looks like styled on both men and women. A larger ring on a man may look too gaudy on a woman whose hand might be smaller and likewise a smaller ring may not be as noticeable on an man who may have a larger hand. You get the picture. 

     This was a milder version of something that happens way too often. Last July when Han So Hee starred in the video for “Seven” with Jungkook, her comment section on Instagram was bombarded with negative comments. Besides strings of vomiting emojis, people were commenting accusing her of dating Jungkook (not that it was any of their business anyway even if that was true), openly admitting their jealousy (which in my opinion is not a compliment and makes the commenter look bad), and accusing her fans of shipping her with Jungkook which they argued that they disapprove of (as if they have a choice in the matter). There are over 168 thousand comments on her post for “Seven” and luckily the good comments did a great job of drowning out the bad ones. If you scroll far enough you will still see a few. The ones that mean well in trying to reprimand the negative commenters are still there and are annoying as well because of the ones where ARMY is specifically mentioned and called toxic. Yes some of the comments were ARMY however there were solos and shippers (whom ARMY doesn’t claim) and a few people from other fandoms who want to make ARMY look bad. The post she made the same day about something else also has negative comments on it as well as comments intending to do damage control but still seeming to make the situation worse by calling out “toxic ARMY.”

A small portion of the comment section of Han SoHee's Instagram on a post from the set of the "Seven" video where she starred as Jungkook's love interest.

     Another such incident that was uncalled for was one involving pre-MHJ drama NewJeans. There apparently was a record for streaming that they had broken that was previously held by BTS or a member of BTS individually. When some ARMYs found out about it they took to the official Instagram account for NewJeans and left comments attacking them. Of course as usual there were solos and other fandoms involved--some other fandoms not even bothering to change their screen names or fully change their bio details as they cosplayed as ARMY.  This was as bad as the hate that was thrown at Han So Hee only this was directed at teenagers. They are literally children who did nothing wrong. Streaming is on the fans to take care of and if they out streamed ARMY then that’s on ARMY to take responsibility for. Either congratulate them or say nothing at all. I don’t care whether you like them or not. There are other Kpop groups (and non K-Pop artists for that matter) that I don’t like that place higher or break records that BTS holds or beat us on the charts here and there. I keep my mouth shut and stream. I would never leave hate comments on another artist’s page. Records are made to be broken and another one will eventually replace that one. We need to learn when to hold nasty comments and channel those into positive things like streaming and voting and otherwise supporting the guys.

      Leaving nasty comments makes us look bad as a fandom, even if we aren’t the ones doing it. People with BTS member names as their display name, a little 7 in the display name, or a photo of BTS members as their main photo end up representing ARMY. People don’t always stop to go through an account to determine if the person seems to be ARMY or a solo. I usually do if I have time but that’s just me.

When there’s a slow news day in the tabloid world where K-Pop is concerned, these tabloid “journalists” will pull comments and posts and everyone speaking in a capacity that seems like ARMY to them is ARMY. They write their articles/blog posts and they won’t differentiate between solo or anti or ARMY if they see a picture of BTS on a profile or the name of a BTS member being used in a screen name. They will take any posts that seem relevant to whatever story they are running and use them and because the posts are public on a social media platform (posts or comments) they can be used without permission. So say a random tabloid did a story on the cyber bullying of NewJeans by ARMY they would use that as their title to get attention and they will pull these comments and assume everyone making them is ARMY. They may not even pay attention to all of the ones telling people to stop being rude. Even those sometimes look bad once the bad ones get scrubbed from the account (deleted in large numbers by admins) because they tend to not go back and clear the ones admonishing those making negative comments. If you didn't know there were negative comments there, the comments scolding others for making them let you know there were negative comments left before they were removed.

     As ARMY we represent BTS when we are on the internet. It is up to us to control what our image is as much as we can. We can’t really do a whole lot about haters except block, report, ignore and not engage with them or their content. We can control what we choose to post and decide that rudeness and bullying is not acceptable. Reporting and blocking when we see it in these circumstances on other artists' posts is the best way to handle it. These comments would be reported to the platform and not to BigHit legal because they only handle legal issues for BigHit artists. The platforms may not do anything but it’s a good idea to report anyway. Call on other ARMYs to drown out the negative comments with positive ones and to like other positive ones. Liking and replying positively to other positive comments pushes them to the top and pushes negative ones to the bottom so you have to scroll to get to them. You don’t have to like all other artists, I mean I certainly don’t but being respectful is free. As JHope says in “Equals Sign,” “it costs you nothing to be kind.”

 

Hate Campaigns Against BTS and What We Can Do About Them

photo credit: Shamia Casiano via Pexels

(Note: I was going to post this tomorrow morning because Monday is the day I decided to post new posts. Given the current situation with Tae now being targeted by fake activists and them dragging Namjoon into it through his IG I am so mad I figured I would add to this and post today. We have to band together as ARMY and fight for our artists.)

  Some of the most evil, disgusting, malicious lies I have ever seen anyone tell about another human being came from antis on Twitter and were directed towards BTS. Before I got into BTS which drew me into the K-pop world, I never knew that people sat around behind the computer and just made up lies about singers. Gossip rags, sure, but I didn't think regular people did things like that. Gossip writers do it to sell magazines and it's trash so people know not to take it seriously. I knew that this kind of thing existed in politics but the extent of fan wars in K-pop has got to be next level garbage.  

     In July 2015, BTS faced death threats online from antis during their Episode II: Red Bullet tour stop in New York. They performed for about two hours and the show was cancelled after staff noticed death threats on social media being made against RM. One of the tweets was a hand holding a gun with the caption saying something like they were on their way and RIP RM. There was a fan meet scheduled that was also cancelled. It's one thing to say you don't like a group's music or you don't like their style but threatening to murder someone is on a whole other level of crazy. It takes a special kind of psycho to do some of these things.

         A year later they faced the Break Wings project. This coordinated hate campaign was started by several other fandoms when BTS's album "Wings" was released in 2016.  I'm not naming fandoms here because I don't want to get into fan wars but if you follow the links or look into it on your own there's plenty of information on who was involved. This was the big incident where they were accused of inflating sales of their albums. This subject was revisited once again this year as a part of the whole Min Hee-Jin fiasco. They were investigated for sajaegi (boosting chart rankings through illegal means using artificially inflated album sales) twice and were cleared of any wrongdoing both times. Here is a link to a Pinterest account that kept receipts from that time including group chat conversations and tweet screenshots. These fans basically got jealous that their groups were being outdone by BTS who were only three years old at the time and escalated their jealous lies into a sajaegi investigation. 

     Break Wings failed miserably but it still left a mark on BTS and the fandom emotionally. I feel like finding out about this and other hate trains against them and how they have come through it strong and with integrity intact makes me love and respect them more. This is also why some ARMY don't feel the need to befriend other fandoms and that's perfectly fine because nothing says we have to be friends. We owe these other fandoms nothing. What I do feel though is that I will be civil and not engage in fan wars.  

      The malice aimed at RM (Kim Namjoon), the leader of BTS, has seemed to increase off and on whenever a member of BTS (whether it is him or not) releases an album or single. Jimin is the member with the latest release and last week I was hearing about a hate campaign antis started against Namjoon on Twitter. It reminded me of the cancel campaign that a certain fandom of a girl group started against Namjoon over a Frank Ocean song. They tried to paint him as Islamophobic because he shared the song (which is in no way anti-Muslim and neither is Namjoon). When it was pointed out that the group they stan also liked the 12 year old song, shared the same song on social media, and had even attended a Frank Ocean concert they ignored it. A Frank Ocean fan page came into the picture to drop the truth complete with notes on the interpretation of the song. A couple of TikTokers joined in and added their lies to the fire saying Namjoon wrote the song (he did not) and trying to connect him to unrelated social issues going on between religions in South Korea at the time. The next time Namjoon went live the comment section was full of harassing comments asking him to apologize to Muslim ARMYs for sharing the song. He said he wasn't apologizing as he had done nothing wrong. I was so proud of him at that moment for standing his ground because people like being loud and wrong and acting self-righteous when they jump on these hate trains. They were wrong and were explained in detail why they were wrong and they decided to be willfully ignorant because hate and anger to these kinds of people (antis) is a way for them to project their personal issues onto others. 

     BTS have faced so much malice and hate from the beginning and it continues. Not getting into politics but all those fake performative activism campaigns people have been spamming on Weverse began as hate campaigns from other fandoms too. These never were genuine calls to help and if they were, they would never have been all over our space for BTS. They would use larger platforms and do things like set up fundraisers for donations or start letter writing campaigns to political leaders and not spam our fan letters pages trying to make idols say something publicly that they want them to say. They are using politics and religion to distract us from voting, streaming, and buying merchandise (particularly streaming). Before you engage  any activity that is aimed at hurting the boys, ask yourself what the motivation is. I have seen the tweets and group chats planning this too and they have long since been copied and sent to Hybe. Here is an article that explains why all of this performative activism aimed at forcing celebrities to talk is useless. This says it better than I ever could. Thanks to the ARMY who sent me this article.

     As I am editing this now, there is a hate train going against Taehyung on Weverse. Tae posted some old photos of him on vacation and in one of the pictures he is holding a McDonald's french fry package that is used in children's Happy Meals. The comparison to how large his hand is and how small the package is is so cute. Of course our usual suspects the ever annoying pain in the ass performative activists have made their way back to Weverse to protest Tae and his McDonald's package that's from 2022! So I guess they are going to go back and attack every single post of anyone that shares MCD or Starbucks from the dawn of time. Be serious. This is all so out of hand. ARMY's are on it reporting to Hybe BigHit but these people are so absurd. They come in with these gas lighting comments that abusers use against their victims saying "we love you but..." and "I support you but..." --no one cares! Weverse is not the place for their fake activism and our guys do not deserve this. 

   When I found out what happened to Tablo of Epik High (a close friend of BTS who collabs on "All Day" with RM and was in an episode of Suchwita with Yoongi), it made me really sad and angry, but I have so much respect for him and how he persevered through having netizens try to destroy him. Someone started the whole hate campaign against him in a chat room all because they were jealous of him going to an Ivy League school and getting two degrees. Jealousy over a brilliant rapper who is a genius who tells it like it is but at the same time is a kind sweet guy just living his life. Sounds like someone else we know and love (Namjoon).  

     So who are these people and why to they do some of the evil things they do? We use the terms "antis" and "sasaengs" to describe haters. They come from every walk of life just like proper fans do. They often "token stan" a group or artist to hide their hate behind liking another artist. Say a hater decides they don't like "A" and want to make hating on "A" their whole personality. Instead of hating on "A" outright they decide to stan "B" so they just look like a passionate fan. They may not even pay attention to "B"'s music or content. They just pretend to stan them so they can justify their hate towards "A" and find others who will agree with them because as they say, misery loves company. 

      BTS was not with a company that was one of the Big 3 at the time they debuted (top 3 rich successful Kpop agencies/labels) and Big Hit was close to bankruptcy. They pulled themselves out of that through hard work and dedication. The main groups that were big 3 that had been on top at the time took offense to that. 

I say groups here because some of these groups actively participated in the accusations hurled at BTS. They were treated by their seniors (older artists in the same field) like the younger step siblings that were never supposed to have nice things and when they earned those things (strong organic sales, loving dedicated fans, national and international recognition) the ones used to getting praised got jealous of the new kids and their fandoms ganged up to attack. 

     What confuses me and always will about the whole thing is that coming from nowhere and working hard to be successful and succeeding is supposed to be ideal. From what I know of Korean culture, how Koreans fought to reclaim their land after the Japanese occupation, and how the economy was able to boom in a short time to become a force on the world stage, BTS's success should be seen as a thing of pride and basically how people should be living. Hard work and dedication and a love of what you do for a living. It baffles me that there have been tons of netizens and media ready to take them down for doing what every one tells their kids to do - work hard and you can achieve your dreams. I guess ultimately it boils down to jealousy and the people who are not where they want to be just decide to use their frustration at their own failures or perceived failures as a reason to dump their negativity onto other people. Celebrities become a target because no one expects them to fight back. If they do, especially in Kpop culture, they may be seen as rude or disrespectful to fans.

     There is a K-drama on Netflix called "Celebrity" and in it there is a group of women who are rich influencers competing with each other for social media dominance. There is an outside person pulling the strings and controlling who gets to be on top of the social circle of these women. The last few episodes really made me think about Kpop fan wars and how you never really know who is behind the keyboard. The lifestyle and psychological profile of the anonymous person seems dead on what I think antis are like in real life. 

     It's hard not to jump in and argue back with haters and defend BTS openly when they receive hate. All that does though is give the trolls what they want and that's an audience and engagement. Some "shooters" (people who fight trolls back on the internet on the behalf of their fandom) will say that they are just "returning the same energy." I used to agree with that though I never used to participate. What I noticed is that it's useless. They don't want to learn from their mistakes so calmly correcting them does nothing and as the saying from Lemony Snicket goes, " If everyone fought fire with fire, the whole world would go up in smoke." I've seen antis take a small comment back to them and escalate that to death threats and threatening to expose user information. It's not worth all of that drama in my opinion. I would much rather see these people get sued by Big Hit/ Hybe and have their accounts suspended or banned permanently from the platforms they spread hate on.

     Whenever you see malicious comments, photos, plans to attack or disrupt Weverse or any space frequented by BTS and ARMY you can report these things to Big Hit/ Hybe's legal team and they will review it and seek legal action. They update us periodically about cases in the works and cases that are finished. This is why you will see ARMY getting excited about certain "This is Big Hit" notifications and talking about karma being an ARMY along with those announcements. People think that free speech means saying what you want to without consequences and that's wrong. You can certainly say whatever you want but you are never exempt from the consequences whatever they may be.

     Here's how I send Big Hit reports:

1. Take screenshots of all the evidence that antis are talking negatively about BTS (don't bother with small scale stuff like "flopping" and "they suck" because that's not what we mean). Anything threatening their sales or streams (boycotts), threats against their lives or families lives, saying they inflate sales illegally, any accusations of criminal activity, allegations of plagiarism, and anything else that defames their character including political posts harrassing them to speak on this or that. It's still harrassment 
2. Keep a list of links for every screenshot you have. These antis like to run their mouths then go private or lock their accounts, some even temporarily deactivate to try to avoid the consequences. This is why we get screenshots first for proof then links because links may disappear later.
3. Keep it off of the timeline. Posting on your page to rant about it or share to others to block the person or report only spreads it. Unfortunately this is how things work. You'll get people commenting under your post asking what happened. Keep the conversation to DMs or group chats only. Being curious is natural but giving in and talking about it in your comments makes others aware of it and is one other post about to added to the lot. 
4.  Send info to Hybe/Big Hit via this new portal to report info Hybe Reporting Portal (updated 09/2024) Fill out the form as much as you can. In Chrome browser you can easily automatically translate the page to English or other languages. 

     I think there will always be antis because there will always be a jealous hater somewhere. The more successful and the nicer you are the more they seem to pop up. The way we handle them by collecting info to send to Big Hit, reporting, and blocking rather than engaging with them is better than wasting time arguing with some brainless troll on the internet. We get the satisfaction eventually of the Big Hit legal emails reassuring us that they are taking legal action against these offenders. Maybe one day they will learn if they can't be nice to say nothing at all.

Dealing With Ageism As A Member of BTS ARMY

      According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, ageism is defined as "prejudice or discrimination against a particular age group." Telling someone they are too old to do something is ageism. Whether that's someone telling another person they are too old to work a certain job, wear a particular outfit, or even stan a K-pop group. Conversations around ageism commonly revolve around worker discrimination or hiring practices but as of late I have seen a lot of conversations surrounding the topic on Threads as it relates to women who stan K-pop groups. It's certainly a conversation that needs to continue because it is getting out of hand.

     Women (mostly it seems) are being bullied online and some in real life, for stanning K-pop groups. This bullying based on age is actually happening in many different areas of fandoms, not just K-pop. I've seen cosplayers, fans of Sanrio characters, fashion influencers, and more posting that they were age shamed for what they enjoy collecting or participating in. For the sake of this post, I will only be talking about ageism and how it relates to BTS ARMY. 

   Usually it has been women who are over 30 years of age that I have seen mention being harassed with comments telling them they're too old to stan a K-pop boy band (mind you the "boys" in question are grown men but more on that later). Then there was the post someone made belittling anyone over 30 who has a K-pop fan page. Well I'm guilty as charged-what ya gonna do about it? Then there's a moot of mine who was told she was too old for K-pop and she's in her early 20's. Seriously? The person saying this must have been 13 because 20 is not old by any means. Only in a child's world would 20 seem old. 

     I'm 48 and I didn't even get into K-pop/BTS till I was 42. I never used to mention my age and I used to shy away from those posts asking, "How old will you be when BTS returns from enlistment?' It's only 22 months so it's not like a lot of monumental age changes will take place. I'll be 49 and I'll still be die-hard OT7 ARMY. Seeing the 20 and 30 somethings made me self-conscious of posting because I feared being judged for being older ARMY. As more older ARMY started to post their ages and talk about stanning BTS it made me feel like I wasn't alone being older ARMY. 

     So why are these people bullying over 30 K-pop fans? The offenders from what I see are usually other women in their 20's or younger. Not saying that men don't do a lot of the ageist bullying as well, but that's where ageism meets the intersection of sexism. I will cover that in another post. There's an element of internalized misogyny that shows up in these interactions where younger women age shame older women for being K-pop fans. It's often a reflection of what the younger female fans are seeing from men and projecting onto the older fans out of some sense of trying to seem better than them for being younger. It makes no sense because love of music, dancing, and artistry has no age limit. It often gives 'pic me' girl vibes where they think if men see them trashing other women, they get points with the red flag types of guys for being a different or edgy type. It's not cute at all. 

     Another issue related to ageism bullying as it relates to K-pop and BTS ARMY is a type of shaming of older ARMY for making sexual comments about BTS. Sex is something people have strong feelings about one way or the other. Negative feelings about sex and sexuality can come from strict religious beliefs, trauma, or the sexist idea that women should not be allowed to experience any kind of sexual pleasure and that sex is only for procreation. Wherever it comes from, it is that individual's issue and their beliefs should not be forced upon others. 

     I've seen people say that ARMY who are over 30 should not be "thirsting" over or making spicy sexual comments about BTS. Well, BTS is in their 30's. The youngest is Jung Kook and he is 26. Twenty-six is closer to 30 than it is to 20. Jin is the oldest and he is turning 32 this December. No one in this group is a minor. Sexual fantasies are not wrong and it's perfectly healthy to have them. Innocent schoolgirl (or school boy for that matter) crushes on celebrities are perfectly normal as well. Harmless delulu is fun. As they say, "delulu is the solulu." 

     Don't want to see it? Then I suggest you keep scrolling without comment. Minding your own business is free and will save you a lot of stress later. They are grown men and most of them have songs with sexually charged lyrics now so if they can sing about it why shouldn't we talk about it? We've all heard "Seven" and "3D" from Jung Kook. I love how he handled that rude commenter on his livestream who said that sex was dirty. He challenged her to explain why and I think she went away. RM has always added some element of sexual expression in his songs. In "Nuts" he praises the prowess of a woman who is "pro ridah" and continues the verse in the male gender mentioning a male "pro ridah." He mentions having a certain automatic body part on "버려 (Throw It)" from his first mixtape "RM." Agust D introduced us to the Hong Kong euphemism for orgasms. Like I said, they are grown men and they are letting us know they aren't little boys anymore. 

     Are these younger fans shaming older fans out of jealousy? Possibly. If they are taking their delulu fantasies too far and they honestly think on some level that they are going to end up with a member of BTS as their husband or boyfriend, it is feasible that they see older fans as competition. Sounds twisted but all one has to do is spend enough time on Weverse and it makes sense in a sad way. There are girls over there that I call the "Dear Diary" girls. They make cringeworthy posts scolding the members for cheating whenever they do a project with a woman. They get so specific in calling them out for "cheating" that it's sad really. If they are that deep in fantasy land then that explains why some are so quick to get jealous and resort to name calling and bullying when an older ARMY makes a joke about one of the members being her boyfriend or spouse or when an older ARMY expresses that they are ARMY in general. It's pathetic in a way that they would go that far. Reality is going to hit them like a ton of bricks when the guys reveal relationships and/or get married and they realize they have been acting like ridiculous little brats this whole time. Older ARMY knows better. We are mature enough to know the difference between fact and fiction, fantasy and reality. Maturity is realizing that your "idol" is human and not some forever innocent virgin doll that belongs only to fans under a certain age. 

    What can we do about these ageist trolls?  When we see that a member of ARMY has experienced ageist bullying, we back each other up and get a discussion going about how ridiculous the behavior is. It's such a beautiful thing to see the positivity in the way we back each other up and express concern for each other over something that is happening too often to too many of us. We should keep doing this and blocking the trolls and encouraging others to block them as well so they get less visibility and less engagement. We don't need their negativity in the fandom. We have enough to deal with. If it happens in real life I encourage you to stand up for other ARMYs when you see it and speak up for yourself if you can and tell others it's not their business what you like. What brings you joy is harmless and life is too short not to enjoy what makes you happy while you are here.