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. 

The Forbes Troll Is At It Again

      Haters come from everywhere and it's sad and very telling when haters or antis are grown (or supposedly grown) adults in "professional" positions. You would think they would know better and have better things to do, but since the internet has monetized everything and some people are ruled by money and attention, we deal with them. One of these trolls is none other than Hugh McIntyre of Forbes Magazine. He has a nasty history of writing about BTS both as a group and individually and his articles on their individual projects often read like a solo or anti (well solos are antis) wrote them. ARMY has him on a block list of journalists (and I use that term loosely where he is concerned) to avoid. He is the only one I definitely remembered from Twitter ARMY advising to avoid. I lost my bookmarks when I deleted my Twitter account but he was always a giant red flag.

     When the Yoongi scooter situation was going on, K-media took the direct route to negativity and became an absolute shits how on a daily basis. Western media started to follow K-media's lead and defame Yoongi at the same time. Hugh saw this and decided to go the opposite direction and write a bunch of positive articles about Yoongi. Well, my mama ain't raise no fools as we say. I saw through his plan as did other ARMY who ignored his articles and advised the rest of ARMY not to share his articles on Yoongi and not to get caught up in the fact that he was suddenly writing positive articles. He needed clicks and figured he would write the opposite of what the majority of the media was putting out at the time. He played with ARMY by figuring he would leverage ARMY attention by pulling the attention his way while we boycotted K-media, Western tabloids, and Billboard as well. I pulled past titles of his and posted screenshots of where he tried to come for Jimin for falling off the charts and articles where he tries to pit the guys against each other and highlight one's achievements over the other and say that this or that member is surpassing his brothers. Yeah, ARMY doesn't play that. It's OT7 or nothing. Still I saw moots share his articles and pump him up. If you want to do your research, Google or search using Firefox "Forbes Hugh McIntyre BTS" and go through his titles. You don't even need to read the articles to see what a hater he is and why we shouldn't be promoting anything he writes.  

     So this past Friday 10/11/24 at 12:29pm Eastern Time, Mr. McIntyre decided to write a ridiculous article and actually go to print with it when it should have stayed in his drafts. The title is "BTS Jin Blocked From Hitting #1 By Another South Korean Solo Superstar." Really? Because first of all how do you go to print with an article about charts halfway through release day? The day's not over yet and what charts is he talking about specifically because Billboard charts come out on Tuesdays. He's talking about Apple's iTunes charts and he's flat out wrong and wrote this for attention from both ARMY (rage bait) and to lick boots with the other fandom (which I am not mentioning because no free promo). 

   Let's break apart why this article is nothing but tabloid fodder because you can write an article and state facts and if those facts happen to go against BTS then so be it. Facts are facts BUT, the thing is, his aren't. People don't fact check anymore and unfortunately unprofessional members of the media know they can get over on people by saying something untrue and they can get away with it because all they want are the clicks. With the decline of print media, this is sadly where we are with digital media. I read the article so you don't have to.

     In the first paragraph he says that "Super Tuna" is not new. This version is new. It has a new verse as an extended version and even new instruments. By McIntyre's logic remixes don't count as new songs. A certain Western artist who re-released her full catalog pretty much wouldn't have any new songs either by his logic. None of the re-releases would count for sales because they were previously released despite potentially new elements to the songs.  He says fans purchased the song for the "second time." Still not differentiating the extended version of Super Tuna from the original which has been removed and replaced with the extended version. He doesn't seem to have done any research on the song before writing. This confirms for me that he doesn't listen to the music before he writes about it either.

     "Super Tuna settles at #2 on the iTunes chart...in the US as of Friday morning" he says. It's very unprofessional of him to even go to print at lunchtime (on the East Coast of the US) with this. It was just after 9:30 am on the West Coast, LA, NV and some people were just waking up. As a stan, I know we wait up till midnight for new music drops but not everyone does that. The iTunes chart flip flops all day long. By calling it like 12:30 pm is some end time or something is like calling a football game at halftime as soon as your team scores a touchdown and is ahead. If sports writers did this they would be fired. Could you imagine a sports writer calling a football game and running to print with B team beat A team only to have A demolish them later in the second half that the writer didn't bother to wait for. It's reminding me of when the media printed that those girls won an MTV award and they hadn't even announced the category yet. Everyone piggy backed off of one false article and ran to the internet with their articles and social media posts and looked like idiots when the winner was announced and it was BTS and not them. Totally unprofessional.

     As I am writing this, "Super Tuna" has been on the top of the charts on iTunes for 3 consecutive days now. Blocked where? It's sold over 100,000 copies in the US alone. "Super Tuna" dominated iTunes charts all weekend long. It has been #1 on Worldwide iTunes and European iTunes for days now. Keep in mind this is just a fun song Jin did for ARMY. 

    Hugh goes on to say, "The BTS member has been fairly quiet for some time." Jin just got out of an 18 month enlistment in the military. He has been out since mid-June. It is October. Where has Hugh been? Under a rock? Since his military discharge, Jin has been a very busy man and even that sounds like an understatement. Jin has been busy working on his new album that is due to be released by the end of the year, he carried the torch at the summer Olympics in Paris this past summer, he is global ambassador for Gucci, Laneige (where he is the first male beauty ambassador), and Fred Jewelry (where he is their first ambassador), and he has done several variety shows including his own called Run Jin which is on every Tuesday. He has been going seemingly non-stop since he was discharged from the military. He celebrated the 11th anniversary of BTS's debut by performing for ARMY and hugging 1000 lucky ARMY the day after he was discharged and has been producing content ever since. Quiet where? 

   After neglecting to mention this, Hugh tries to turn it around at the end of the article by briefly mentioning Jin's military service but it reads as to little to late and seems like an afterthought just added as filler to end the article. What he writes about the other artist is mediocre fluff and obviously placed as bait. This actually does her a disservice. All that hype in the title and barely 3 sentences and he doesn't discuss her achievements or give her comeback any real attention. Not a fan but as someone who's not a fan and sees this clearly, if I was a fan of hers I would be annoyed too. He could have gotten 2 really good articles out of this by just writing the facts about 2 different artists who had comebacks on the same day without trying to pit fandoms against each other and ultimately making himself look like an idiot with a half-ass article he rushed to get published. 

     His writing is nothing more than glorified tabloid journalism. He chooses to use clickbait and write like a BTS anti to get clicks and ARMY needs to stop giving him the time of day. Most of us have and when more knowledgeable ARMY ask that you stop spreading articles from certain journalists we hope you others will listen. He's a "pick me"as someone said the other day. He licks the boots of whomever he thinks he can get attention from and that's disgusting to me. If you are going to write and want me to take you seriously as a journalist you should write facts. Whether I like the groups or not facts are facts. He dragged Jimin in a comparison once with a boy group when he should have just written an article praising the boy group for their achievements and keeping Jimin out of it. Once again, not a fan of that group but reporting numbers as they are and facts is better than using BTS and ARMY in a title to be a jerk and then trash them in the process of promoting another group. Just promote the other group. You can do that without putting our guys out there as bait. But the reason he does it is because he knows ARMY will somewhat be right there to give him clicks either good or bad. So he praises Yoongi when it is convenient then tries to tear down Jin after he already came for Jimin. Block him on all platforms and stop giving him attention. He's not worth it. I don't care if he writes positive articles once in a blue moon or not. He's trying to get paid and he has no morals when it comes to how that happens. We don't need the media fanning the flames of fan wars. 

     

Stop Reading And Sharing Posts From Korean Gossip Blogs

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

Koreaboo

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

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

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

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

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

Pannchoa 

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

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

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

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

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