Amidst the battle and protests happening in Dallas following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, K-pop fans mass prank the Dallas Police Department (DPD) with K-pop idols' fan camera videos.
This started when the Dallas Police official social media account in Twitter posted information about their application, "iWatch," which is an intended platform for people that allows them to report or upload videos or photos showing 'illegal activities' being done by protests, against police brutality, anonymously.
If you have video of illegal activity from the protests and are trying to share it with @DallasPD, you can download it to our iWatch Dallas app. You can remain anonymous. @ChiefHallDPD @CityOfDallas — Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) May 31, 2020
As soon as K-pop enthusiasts, who are also known for being notorious in Twitter and prominently known as "Twitter stans," found out about the application, they are definitely not happy as it was like, "snitchin" the protests. Previously, #BlackLivesMatter trended among K-pop fans, supporting the rights of Black people.
Also, K-pop idols such as Taeyang, CL, Tiffany, and Jae are showing their most in-depth support to the movement. A fan account then calls out K-pop stans, asking them to join the mass-pranking and mass-uploading of fancams, to save the lives of the protests, which are going to face a severe punishment once exposed.
CALLING ALL K-POP FANS Regardless of what fandom you're from, let's put our fancam skills to use and spam the #calminkirkland... police are using this hashtag to identify protestors!! Let's use our skills so they can't find anything! — Brit (@Brit_Starr07) June 1, 2020
Thus, K-pop fans decided to prank DPD with over hundreds of fancams, making the app to crash. In particular, fan camera videos or called 'fancams' are videos taken by fans, with their favorite K-pop idol or K-pop group as their subject. Shortly after, the Dallas Police Department posted in their Twitter account an announcement that 'iWatch' will be temporarily down due to some technical errors.
Due to technical difficulties iWatch Dallas app will be down temporarily. pic.twitter.com/zksA1hkVhV — Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) May 31, 2020
Also, the application got 4,000 ratings in the app store as well, and the majority were all negative. Several international citizens who are also supporting the Black Lives Matter movement were touched by this act, K-pop fans gaining respect from netizens for serving a purpose.
I'm a kpop fan and even I am usually annoyed by all the fancam replies on tweets. But for once they used it for a good cause. K-pop fans spam Dallas police 'snitch' app with videos and memes to support protesters https://t.co/acksFz8VEq via @Mashable — sailor mercedes (@oysterwench) June 1, 2020
On the contrary, some fans are against this act, as there are several ways to show their support without going against the rules.
On Twitter, a thread was posted by an account, guiding K-pop fans on what they can do to help the movement.
Some of the must-do options are signing the petition asking for Justice for George Floyd as well as the petition to charge the police who were involved with murder, donating in-kind donations for the protests, emailing attorneys to help solve the case, as well as standing up to be the voice of other Black people.
A THREAD OF WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP#BlackLivesMatter — *.☽.* (@tpwkhollands) May 27, 2020
Meanwhile, Floyd, a 46-year-old man, died in Minneapolis after an encounter with police officers. He was accused of paying with a fake bill leading the store employee to report it in the police. Upon the arrival of white police officers, Derek Chauvin placed his left knee between Floyd's head and neck. Begging for his life, some of his last words were, "I can't breathe," and "Please."
International artists and K-pop idols are also using their influence to seek for justice amidst the protest, and CLICK HERE to see the list of K-artists who show support to the #BlackLivesMatter.
