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. 

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.

Why You Shouldn't Care That I'm A Single Group Stan

       *Note: This post is in no way aimed at all multi stans. This is only referring to multis who shame single group stans and who try to force others to listen to the groups they stan. I have nothing against multis who stay in their lane and don't bully ARMY or other one group stans. *

  I have a confession to make. Many of you may share the same sentiment as me and will confess also for the good of all mankind, but I have to get this out in the open now. Here goes… I am a single group stan when it comes to K-Pop. I only stan BTS. I have thought about stanning TXT and Le SSerafim but have since decided that I am perfectly fine being a casual fan of both. My casual fan behavior is often more dedicated than some so called “stans” anyway so I’m proud to be BTS ARMY and only stanning BTS. Even if this earns me ridicule in some circles. “Why would anyone care if you or anyone else only stans one K-Pop group?," you ask.  Well let’s get into it. 

     Last month there was an engagement bait post on Threads posted by a young multi-stan that rubbed me the wrong way and turned out to be quite funny by the time ARMY finished chiming in on the subject. By engagement bait post I mean a post that is structured to make people argue in the comments so that the poster gets tons of engagement in the form of comments, mostly likes, re-shares, quotes, and views. I have blocked and unfollowed several popular accounts for posting things like this because it always ends up blowing up at the expense of someone and I just don’t like it in general. This particular post was obviously aimed at ARMYs to get people in the comments to mention and complain about us. The post was asking how multis feel about single group stans and goes on to call out single group stans saying it could never be them because single group stans are “missing out” and several other things I disagreed with. So here’s my take on stanning in general. 

     The term comes from the Eminem song called “Stan” from 2000. The song is about a guy who is a psycho fan basically and keeps demanding attention from Eminem. Over time the term has come to mean someone who is a “superfan” of a group or artist (according to the person who posted the Thread). It has been argued that it doesn’t mean superfan but that’s what I am going to go with as a definition.  Being a stan means you are more than just a casual fan and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a casual fan, though some people act like being a casual fan is the kiss of death to admit. 

     I am a Coldplay stan as well as BTS. I only purchase physical albums from those 2 groups. I listen to hundreds of other artists but when it comes to merchandise and where my money goes, it goes to BTS and Coldplay. You don’t have to have any merch or albums at all to be a stan but in my case these are the only groups I own anything from.  I have seen Coldplay live twice but I have never seen BTS live before, not yet. You don’t have to attend concerts to be a stan either. Stanning to me has to do with loyalty to the artist, voting, and streaming. If you genuinely enjoy the music the artist puts out and support them then you are a fan. As a stan of BTS, as an ARMY I stream and vote. I don’t vote for any other groups when BTS is concerned. My loyalty belongs to BTS. I don't really listen to other groups in their generation (3rd gen). I love TXT, who is 4th generation, and if I did stan any other group it would be them but I feel like if I cannot give them the same attention I give BTS I can’t fully consider myself a MOA. I do show up for all of their comebacks and stream with MOA on Stationhead when I can and I’m learning their birthdays. In 4th gen if they are nominated for awards I vote for them. Stanning for me goes beyond listening to the music and that’s my interpretation. It may be different for you and that’s fine. 

     

     One thing that was brought up as a reason they (multis) don’t get single group stans is that they don’t understand how we don’t get bored and stan other groups when our one group isn’t releasing new content. I think this was the funniest point to destroy as ARMY. I stan BTS. No content! Where? I cannot even begin to relate. Now if your faves release an album or EP once every five years, or have been around for more than one year and have not produced a full length album and all you get are two or three song slices here and there then I guess you have to supplement your musical diet with songs from elsewhere, but ARMY stays fully fed. BTS has an amazing discography spanning 11 years so far and counting. Stanning them as an OT7 is stanning a group and seven amazing solo artists. Every member has solo work as well as group work. During this enlistment “break” we have gotten new songs or albums nearly every other month. That’s a LOT of music to keep up with, not to mention all of the videos and shows. As I am writing this we are getting ready for two new shows from them premiering this month and waiting on Jin’s solo debut album while we still digest critically acclaimed “Right Place Wrong Person” by RM, “Hope on the Street Vol. 1” by J-Hope and the latest “Muse” by Jimin. Those are just the album releases from the past 6 months not counting single releases. When I say we stay fed, I mean it’s a feast. It’s a full on all you can eat buffet. And we love it. I understand why other fandoms would be envious but that’s on their artists for being more interested in other non-music related endeavors when they signed up to be music idols. Get you a group that is here for the music first and foremost rather than the fame. 

     Another thing that seems weird and almost cult-like about multis who have an issue with single group stans is that they assume if single group stans branched out and stan other groups that it would be some of the ones they stan. I am very picky with what groups I give time and energy to. I can’t get into music that isn’t about anything. The message has to resonate strongly with me or I won’t be bothered to keep listening, let alone be a serious streamer or buyer of that artist. With Coldplay whom I have stanned for over 20 years, they are all about peace, love, and adding positive vibes to the world and sharing that strongly with others. Their message is that things will get tough because that’s life but the sun always rises after the darkest dawn. Sounds a lot like our BTS and that’s why they click so well together. Hopefulness in the face of adversity and pushing forward is the message. Le SSerafim has a message of strength and resilience woven through their music as well and it’s empowering to women. Le Sserafim spells I'm fearless and the fandom name is Fearnots. I love their girl power message. When I have tried to listen to other K-Pop groups (outside of the three or 4 I listen to) nothing else stands out or hits me enough to stan or want to stan. I hear the same tired metaphors over and over (food used as metaphor for sex), culturally appropriated AAVE (African-American Vernacular English) used in cringeworthy contexts, and plagiarism of lyrics from 90’s rap groups being called interpolation when it’s not because interpolation involves sampling and melody rather than words but somehow certain K-pop writers get a pass for it. It has to stand out and be something special enough to grab my attention and keep it. I do listen to K-Rock and I love The Rose and Se So Neon as well as Balming Tiger. To see me only stanning BTS and thinking of me as "missing out" is laughable. K-Pop isn't the only genre to exist.

Some of these multis move like a cult pushing their artists by giving unsolicited recommendations in comment sections begging people to try their groups and getting pissy attitudes with you if you say you’re not interested. That has happened to me several times and it’s just weird. They move like MLM scammers who get paid or level up when they bring in enough recruits to the team. Do they have a secret club where if they turn enough single group stans into multis then they get points and level up? That's the only way getting pressured to stan more than one group by random strangers makes any sense. What do they hope to gain if you decide to stan three groups? If I decide to stan more groups and enter Multisville do get a membership budget so I can buy merch? Is there a portal where I can add more hours to my day? I'm busy enough as a wife and mom and ARMY. I don't have time to catch up to all of the content other groups put out if I can barely keep up with all that BTS puts out. I love BTS but I have never tried to force them on people. You like what you like and you’ll find what’s for you on your own. I don't care if people don't like BTS because not everything is for everybody. What I don't like is the disrespect shown to BTS and ARMY for whatever reasons. There are a lot of popular artists I don't like and I have my reasons. I don't go into their comment sections and talk about how great BTS is or Coldplay or how they're missing out by not listening to them. I don't give unsolicited recommendations then argue when politely turned down as if the person insulted you directly. People like that need to touch grass.

     

     What I don’t get is if you’re a multi and you talk about stanning all of K-Pop (a comment I have seen posted as a flex strangely enough) then how do you vote if two or more groups you like are up for the same award? I know I will always go for BTS no matter what but how do you choose? I guess that’s where “ults” or ultimate groups come in and I hate to break it to you but if you have an “ult” out of like 15 or 20 groups you “stan” then wouldn’t that mean you stan that “ult” group over the others and you’re probably more of a casual fan of the others? Make it make sense. Because by that logic I stan BTS, TXT, Le SSerafim and P1Harmony but BTS is my “ult.” I participate in all of their comebacks by streaming, I follow them all on social media and I know their names. This is where I start to get a headache because I asked the multi stan poster what is the difference then between stanning and being a casual fan and they said stan means superfan and casual fan is self-explanatory. Ok, then why did half of the multis in the comments sound like they have “ults” but are more so casual fans of all the other groups they mention. "Enthusiastic casual fan" is what I like to use when people ask me if I’m a MOA. I say no but I love and support TXT as a casual fan who streams with MOAs and supports their comebacks even though I don’t know all of the inside jokes, backstories, or the deal behind the PPulverse. 

     It would be funny if ARMY decided to stan one of these groups that multis try to push on single group stans all the time. I know exactly how that would go. Let me share my gift of foresight with you. First, they would be excited to have us stanning whatever nugu group is the group du jour that is trending at the moment. The streams and hype surrounding the group would be through the roof. They would win on music shows and use that for their fan wars. The chosen group would rise up the ranks quickly off of ARMY clout. It would all be cute until they couldn’t get concert tickets because they sell out in five minutes because of ARMY. When merchandise sells out in under an hour and when albums sell out meaning they can't collect their precious exclusive photo cards because they have to wait on restocks of albums and they will be complaining. They will end up hating us even more and will probably move on to the next, next big thing. They will make the excuse that the group they wanted us to stan is now too mainstream because too many people are into them. They don’t get to be in this exclusive “we stanned them at debut” club anymore. That’s another odd thing I notice, how quickly a group can be abandoned by some multis. People actually ask what group they should stan this summer or this year and take suggestions from other people online. I could never ask people who I should become a “super fan” of because that’s something that should come from your heart. What resonates with you the most? What group’s lyrics and overall message is one that suits you the best? That’s how I choose though it feels like BTS chose me at the right moment. 

    I'm a single group stan. I don't say that as a flex or to act like I'm better than multis. I say it because I don't need people coming into my comment section telling me to stan another group because BTS is friends with them, or to be nice if I expose voting cheating of another fandom (I stan groups not fandoms), or when mentioning BTS in general getting whole thesis pages written in comment sections begging me to listen to other groups. What other people listen to and the artists they stan is none of your business. The sooner people realize that the better off it will all be. Go touch grass and enjoy real life before it passes you by while you're busy worrying about something as trivial as how many groups someone else stans.

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.”

 

BTS Privacy: How can ARMY help protect it?

 Airport Mobbing     

 Imagine you are a K-pop idol. You are on a plane headed home from your tour and you feel awful. Your body hurts from all the intense dance routines. You want a massage. You have been on a strict diet for months in preparation for this tour for both stamina reasons and visual reasons (unrealistic beauty standards you are expected to meet). The plane food is lacking but you plan to have that massage and eat a big dinner then take a long nap once you get home. You take a deep breath and get ready for the part you hate the most about airports -the press and fans. The plane lands and you put on dark shades because the flashes from all of the cameras hurts your eyes. You took something for muscle aches and hope it kicks in soon. You pull a baseball cap over your messy hair and plaster on your best fake smile. You hope no one gets hurt. You think the fans swarming the airport is dangerous and you have addressed this with your fans. Nothing seems to change and they get more and more aggressive each trip. You trust your security team and leave it up to them because it's their job to make sure things go smoothly. 

     This is just my imagination of course but I feel like this must be what these celebrities go through at the airport. I feel bad that they have to put on a happy face and wave and pose to appease a bunch of entitled fans who shouldn't be there in the first place. No one should be at the airport unless they are staff (of the airport or stores or restaurants etc inside), travelers, people saying goodbye to travelers, or picking travelers up. 

It is in the guidelines to BTS ARMY fandom membership that fans are not to be at the airport. There are a lot of things in these official rules that are ignored by fans and when Twitter or Threads ARMY bring it up we always face opposition ("it's the culture"). I highly recommend all ARMY visit the ARMY etiquette linked in this post and in my post about resources. I've realized that a lot of what we talk about is already there in black and white reposted via Weverse from Big Hit. The link is for a US ARMY fan base but the rules apply to all ARMY no matter where you are. 

     When we ask ARMY not to go to the airport it's for safety and privacy reasons. BTS should be able to travel without feeling like they are putting fans in a position to potentially be harmed because people don't know how to act. Fans get too wild sometimes and push and shove each other and the ones there from fan sites that are there to take and sell pictures (obtained without consent) will push and shove to get that one shot they want. Fans swarm these artists and their bodyguards have to watch them and the fans in order to keep their clients safe. I've seen footage of an actress getting swarmed so that she could barely take two steps at a time without stopping because of the crowd around her. A sasaeng followed behind Jungkook with her suitcase when he stopped for a second to bow and security quickly pushed her out of the way. We often joke that security should be just yeeting people out of the way, but recently security teams for a K-pop boy group and an actor both were under fire for pushing greedy fans. My opinion on that is that security is doing their jobs and if these fans would stay away from the airport they wouldn't have to worry about getting manhandled by security. If security did nothing and an idol got hurt they would still be blamed so they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do you do your job and get in trouble for it or risk not doing it and still get in trouble for it?

     BTS ARMY started the Purple Ribbon Project at the airport where they would go and create a barrier between the fans and the artist. They would hand out purple ribbons and line up and link together to keep the crowd back. Namjoon mentioned in an interview that he liked that ARMY did this. ARMYs often ask if we should bring this back whenever there is another incident of BTS being mobbed at the airport. The original creators of the Purple Ribbon Project have said on Reddit that it would not be something that they would bring back now. The goal is to get fans to stay away from the airport and stop mobbing these artists whenever they travel. Having ARMYs bring back the project would be sending people to the airport to do damage control and it would be against the goal of not having extra people there. People would also try to get into the project as members or organizers just to get close to BTS and that would be counterproductive to have people that joined just to break the rules.

     BTS have all discussed not liking the drama at the airport. Taehyung thanked fans for giving them their privacy on a past trip to Hawaii. ARMYs pretended not to see them at the airport and kept things calm. Jin mentioned using a private exit for safety reasons when he got to Argentina (to perform with Coldplay before his enlistment) only to return to South Korea and be swarmed by fans at the airport. What can we do about the airport mobbing? We can encourage ARMYs to not go to the airport and to support the guys on their public schedules like meet and greets and concerts, not on their private schedules. We can stop engaging with unauthorized content from the airport. That means stop sharing fan site photos (you can tell them by watermarks and from the menu markings that often show up in their photos from the camera). If the people swarming the airport to get photos cannot sell those photos and don't get likes on their photos or videos when shared on social media then they may stop going. People go so they can get photos and videos to sell or post online which is against ARMY guidelines. Unfollow stalker accounts. Some are big fanbases that seem to have the scoop on everything so people follow for info not asking how they got it. 

Unauthorized Photographs

     Speaking of unauthorized photographs, all photographs taken on private schedules without permission are prohibited (see ARMY guidelines). That goes for the Yoongi photo that was going around last week and all of those military photos that people sneak and take without their permission. I'm still undecided about the ones the other soldiers take and post because it's likely that they know the photos are being taken but not necessarily that they will be on social media. I try not to engage with those as much if I am confused about them. Yoongi however, said as he was enlisting that he didn't want there to be any photos of him taken and posted. Fans who share those are clearly doing so against his wishes. We all miss him too but the rest of us are willing to wait for them to post the pictures they want out and allow them to have the privacy they deserve by not sharing something they don't want out. He was not on official business but out on a private schedule at a movie. Following them and taking video on private schedules is unacceptable behavior.

     Following family and friend accounts of BTS members is also a bit odd to me. It almost feels like using someone to get to their popular friend or family member. I trust BTS to post and share with us what they want us to see and we need to stay in our place as fans. I don't follow any of their family members or friends unless those friends are also in the industry and they have collaborated with them (which is not the same thing). Their friends and family have their own lives and businesses to run and often have pages set up for that purpose. Jungkook's brother has a clothing line and so does JHope's sister. They have their own brands to represent that have nothing to do with their BTS siblings. Jimin's dad runs a restaurant and apparently often posts about Jimin. I wouldn't know because I don't follow him. I just see things when people who follow his page post. I always think of things from a protective standpoint. If I was a celebrity would I find it weird if people followed my father's Instagram looking for insider info on me? Yeah I would. I would want to keep my friends and family safe from fans should they decide to get rude.

     And getting rude and stalking friends and family certainly happens. JHope's sister was getting spam on her live streams by people who thought it was fun to post "Yoongi marry me" in her comments. That was just rude and embarrassing to ARMY because she's an influencer and a business woman who was talking about products at the time I believe and a played out joke that was wearing out its welcome with ARMY showing on her feed makes us look bad. RM has had a friend he posted pictures hanging out with (a friend who is also in the industry) get hate spam on Instagram to the point where he locked down his page. I think the haters were speculating that they were in a relationship (not their business anyway) and they sent hate messages to this man. These things reflect poorly on ARMY and are just hateful and juvenile. Some ARMY follow Jungkook's brother and end up sharing pictures from his account. I feel like if they were supposed to be out then Jungkook would share them on Weverse or on his Bam IG. If you follow them for your own reasons and don't share what they post, that's better in my opinion than following them to get info on the members then reposting it. 

Stalking and Private Information Leaks

     I was scrolling Threads a few weeks ago and I came across a post that was a picture of a house with the caption "Jungkook's new home." I immediately took screenshots to send to BigHit legal team and checked out the account to see if they had posted anything else about it. I didn't see anything else on their page but as I scrolled further on the main feed there was a TikTok that someone had shared with the same house saying it was Jungkook's new home under construction and there was a shot of a fence or something with a sign on it that looked official. I took a screenshot and got the link to that too. I don't think it is technically illegal to post someone's home online but what reason would anyone have to share that information other than seeking attention or to do something they shouldn't do. This could put him in a dangerous situation assuming it is his home. He has already expressed being upset with stalkers who have sent him food delivery, stood outside of his home, and even had a stalker join the same boxing gym as him after standing outside taking video of him through the window. She apparently took the footage for her Patreon account where she was stalking him then posting exclusive footage and charging for it. If this isn't his home and the posters were posting for internet likes and follows then think about the current or potential new tenants. They are going to be stalked by fans looking for Jungkook. That could put their family in danger. It would be such a nuisance to have random people hanging out around the outside of your home at all hours hoping to see someone who doesn't live there.  

     We don't share personal information about the members. This should be common sense and self-explanatory yet there are people working for airlines, train stations, and other places who leak information about the travel schedules of the guys. Sharing private information puts them in a vulnerable situation with stalkers and they have had some dangerous situations with them in the past. As you can see in this video from ARMY YouTuber Jose Ochoa, V had a stalker last year who followed him into the elevator of his building. She was obviously very disturbed because she thought she was going to marry him and even had a marriage certificate she tried to get him to sign. That ultimately was how she was caught because she put her real contact info down on the form and authorities were able to arrest her. How did this person even get his personal address information? People may think sharing this stuff is fun and cute because they get likes and follows out of it but you don't know if someone else is going to take what you share and do something harmful with it. You may think sharing a picture of a house that supposedly belongs to BTS is harmless but all it takes is a Google photo search to find the neighborhood and address or close enough to it for a stalker to figure out the rest. 

** Update 6.12. 2025 Jungkook just was released from the military on 6.11 and had a stalker trying to break into his home. The woman waited apparently hours and was arrested and let go. This needs to stop.

What Can ARMY Do To Protect BTS

    As a fandom the things we do reflect on the rest of the fandom and BTS. It’s our duty to follow fandom rules (and as I said before yes there are rules and they are linked in this post for anyone who wasn’t aware of that. I didn’t always know either.) . It’s our duty as citizens also to make sure we aren’t doing anything that endangers other people as well. So how can we protect BTS’s privacy and make sure they feel safe with ARMY?

1. DO NOT GO TO THE AIRPORT TO CHASE IDOLS! Unless you are picking someone up, work there in some capacity, are official press with a press pass (not a blogger or fan site), or are traveling you have no business at the airport. Crowds of fans are a safety hazard and can also cause problems for other travelers. You do not need to be there in the way. 

2. Stop consuming airport content. If the content is no longer popular then people going there to get video and pics of idols will have to figure out other content and less people will go to the airport to try to get pic and video for attention. 

3. Stop sharing unauthorized photos. These are any photos that were not shared by Hybe, the guys, any official sources like brands they have endorsements with or shows they have been on, and people also in the industry. Posting their locations while they are on private schedules can be dangerous. People with ill intentions will know where to find them on their private time.

4. Never share any address, phone number, or travel information for the members. If you see anyone sharing it take screenshots with their info and get links to the page where the info is and send to BigHit legal New Hybe Report Link

     If we work together we can see to it that they are a bit safer every day. At the core of all of this is that real ARMY treats BTS like the human beings they are and respects them and they respect ARMY. 

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.