Jungkook'ed: When Indian K-Pop Fans United To Crush Pakistan's Propaganda

As a 15-year veteran “Typhoid Mary” of Hallyu in India, I have converted many friends to K-pop and K-dramas. My social media timeline is often filled with K-content, perhaps incomprehensible to those for whom IU only stands for International Unit and BIGBANG is only a theory about the origins of the universe.

To friends in media and social commentators, however, I have often spoken of the unparalleled efficacy of digital organisation amongst K-pop fandoms. These fandoms now form the largest and most effective digital army ever assembled, and are the foremost fora for entrenching opinions and ideologies amongst younger demographics, which continue to be reinforced through life. The ability of K-pop fandoms to spread information (good or ill), and to leverage social media with sophistication surpasses almost every political campaign in existence.

K-pop fans are almost unmatched in their ability to self-assemble, self-regulate, and control messaging. In rapidly assembled or long-standing group chats, they create messaging, repost it methodically, and counter opposing or negative information through arguments and strategic suppressing or enhancing of content. They are able to build campaigns with precision, all without a central authority, so that messaging is somehow united but varied, capable of catering to many different ages, regions, languages, and education levels.

This organic structure allows them to propagate and govern their efforts effectively. Their campaigns, whether voting for favourites in polls or catapulting artists onto global charts through mass buying, streaming, and voting, demonstrate a level of coordination that other campaigns can achieve only with immense amounts of cash lubrication.

Usually, this sophisticated information machinery with its millions of enthusiastic volunteers is used to argue whether or not Artist J can sing or whether Artist K’s rear is 'saggy'. But often it is also used in ideological causes, fuelling international narratives on certain issues, leading consumption boycotts, and even fundraising and volunteering for many social causes.

K-pop fans’ ability to influence social media spaces became evident during the recently concluded India-Pakistan conflict. India retaliated to the killing of 26 Indian tourists in Pahalgam on April 22 by taking out 9 terrorist hubs in Pakistan on May 7. Pakistan responded by targeting Indian civil and religious sites with ballistic missiles and armed drones over three days, all of which were thwarted by Indian air defence. On May 9, India responded by taking out several Pakistani military assets. On May 10, Pakistan requested a ceasefire, to which India agreed, but which Pakistan breached within hours.

Taking advantage of the TikTok ban in India and the consequent information vacuum on that platform, Pakistan portrayed itself as a victim, erasing its history of terrorism against India. This oversimplified portrayal of victim and aggressor mirrored entrenched liberal narratives around Israel and Gaza, revealing how easily lies spread on social media, especially amongst those who adopt entrenched positions without knowing anything about a regional conflict.

Indian K-pop fans responded brilliantly to Pakistani and liberal propaganda, creating threads of information that were retweeted widely. They united across rival fandoms, with BTS Army, BLACKPINK Blinks, BIGBANG VIPs, and numerous others—fans who would rather die than share content under normal circumstances—creating and reposting each other’s content. Together, they spread India’s side of the story, countering Pakistan’s narrative.

Fans used innovative means to access TikTok, reclaiming a space Pakistan had initially dominated. Their efforts helped India win ground in the information war, with evidence-based threads and posts about Pakistan’s initiation of violence and terrorism flooding both TikTok and X, in formats, languages, and fora most familiar to their peers, i.e., young people from other countries.

This conflict also forced introspection. Indian K-pop fans, many of whom had passionately advocated for fandom-supported causes like Gaza and Black Lives Matter, noticed that their perceived ideological allies offered little support in return. People who expected their support for their pet causes did not even acknowledge the war between two nuclear-powered countries. It seems all causes and all populations are not created equal.

Many Indian fans rapidly realised the limits of so-called global solidarity and unity "across humanity" as well as the extent of racism against Indians and Hindumisia even amongst their fandoms. They learnt that Hindus and Indians must rely only on themselves, as religious and geopolitical identities often trump shared humanity.

The organisation and dedication of K-pop fans should be lauded, and indeed they have been brilliant fighters in this information war. But we must also realise that young minds are often and too easily drawn into ideological silos through online spaces. Indeed, all minds, young and old, are susceptible to this ossification of ideological imprints.

Algorithms on TikTok and X reinforce echo chambers, and fandom culture further prioritises loyalty and consensus over scepticism and critical thought. The skills K-pop fans develop, of organisation, content creation, and digital advocacy, are powerful, but they must be balanced with an awareness of how narratives are crafted and spread, and how their skills and their numbers are being used and by whom.

The ease with which Pakistan reversed victim and aggressor roles on social media highlighted the Kafkaesque extent of narrative manipulation in our world. Indian fans’ success in countering this shows their potential to reshape narratives, but it also underscores the need for critical thinking in digital spaces.

Perhaps many fans will think carefully about how these roles were framed in other conflicts, when they themselves weren’t on-ground witnesses as they were in this instance. They may now realise that they themselves may have been inveigled into being digital foot soldiers for someone else’s war. May this be a lesson to all of us not to be useful idiots in digital spaces.