The US-based Korean pop blog, Allkpop was roundly criticised by netizens after it published an article which allegedly played into the stereotype that Southeast Asian K-pop fans were generally toxic and uncouth.
The article, titled “Extreme Lisa fans from South East Asia are being criticized for terrorizing other BLACKPINK member’s social media”, used the term akgae to insinuate that the Southeast Asian fanbase of BLACKPINK’s Lisa, who hails from Thailand, is hateful and rude.
Akgae is often used to describe passionate fans who leash out their inner hate and dislike towards other band members based upon the belief that they’re doing their favorite member (known as ‘bias’) a favour.
Aside from the term, the article also used equally provocative quotes which only seemed to make things worse.
“The Southeast Asian fans are a real serious issue. They keep talking about Lisa this and Lisa that on the comment section on other members’ posts.”
Just when the situation couldn’t get any worse, the comment section decided to heat things up with more hateful remarks attacking fans from the Southeast Asian region and Lisa’s ethnicity.
It seemed that the comment section was the straw that broke the camel’s back as angry netizens from the region condemned Allkpop for its apparent racism with the hashtag #AllkpopRacist.
The hashtag has now accumulated over 404,000 tweets at the time of writing.
Allkpop released a statement following the backlash, saying that they were merely reporting and highlighting issues within the international K-pop fandom and had no ill intention towards the Southeast Asia region.
We hope by shedding light on such issues all KPOP fandoms can unite to stop the hate and divide between international fans and continue to share, embrace and enjoy KPOP. Music is a language with no borders, and we hope everyone can become one thru the love of KPOP music. (2/2)
— allkpop (@allkpop) July 7, 2021
Despite their best efforts to defuse the situation, fans remained incensed and continued to berate Allkpop for its stance over the issue.
Sources: Allkpop, Twitter
Editor: Ying Ren Tan
Proofreader: Sarah Yeoh
