K-Pop Fancams Got Political to Protect Black Lives Matter Protesters From Dallas Police Favorite 

If you’ve spent a decent amount of time on Twitter, you’re probably familiar with the concept of K-pop fancams. The short clips of live performances, primarily by South Korean acts, often dominate replies on the app and are hated by many. This week, however, the social phenomenon has taken over in a different way: to fight for the rights of Black Lives Matter protesters seeking justice after the death of George Floyd.

On Sunday, May 31, the Dallas Police Department took to Twitter to urge its followers to send in “video of illegal activity from the protests” via their iWatch Dallas app. Not even 24 hours after the original call to action, they tweeted the app was experiencing “technical difficulties” and “will be down temporarily.” The reason? Well, K-pop fancams might have something to do with it.

After Floyd was killed in police custody, countless protests have taken place and are ongoing around the U.S. and beyond, demanding justice and calling out racism and police brutality against Black people. While people are fighting for basic rights in the street, some K-pop stans are doing their part online. As reported by BuzzFeed News, K-pop fans took notice of the Dallas Police Department’s first tweet and took matters into their own hands to protect protesters. Instead of submitting video “evidence” of “illegal activities,” stans inundated the app with their fancams.

“Fellow kpop stans. Download this app. FLOOD IT WITH FANCAMS. I MEAN IT. FLOOD THIS SH\*T WITH FAN CAMS. DONT LET THEM SEE ANYTHING BUT KPOP FANCAMS #BLACK_LIVES_MATTERS,” user @minimyg_ urged. Another post by user @7soulsmap that, according to BuzzFeed News, started the movement, currently has over 41,000 likes. “The only reason to post fancams in 2020 is to protect the identities of BLM protestors,” they posted on the thread.

“Some U.S. police department was asking ppl to snitch on protesters and the replies r being bombarded with stan accounts posting fancams and theyre great asbfnsjk,” someone commented. “Not Kpop stans having the Dallas police department app crash by spamming it with fancams lmfaooo,” another wrote. “Maybe kpop fancams have one (1) right. this is f*cking great lmao,” a third one added.

BuzzFeed News noted that people took the opportunity to leave one-star reviews on both the Google Play Store and iOS App Store, on top of seemingly crashing the app. They also flooded the review comments demanding justice for George Floyd and amplifying the Black Lives Matter movement. If this proves one thing, it's how big and powerful a role fandom can play when you look past fan wars.

It’s refreshing to see some fans rallying against police brutality with fancams, but some accounts are also bringing forth privacy concerns. As user @sailorestrela put it, it’s imperative to first get informed and check app permissions regarding personal data, especially if you intend to use them as political tools

BY SARA DELGADO
TEEN VOGUE

JUNE 1, 2020