Oleh: Ismail Fahmi.

#China_Is_Terrorist, An Analysis  The Power of K-Pop Fandoms And Indonesian Users  This hashtag is very interesting. It gained 1M+ conversations in 3 days, and among the word trending topic for quite long.   Drone Emprit has collected 1,140,662 twits. Here is the result.

Trend: Started by Turkish, Exploded by K-Pop Fandoms, Extended by Indonesian  The #China_is_Terrorist hashtag was started by Turkish users. Until 19:00 (21 Dec), it went no where. Then K-Pop Fandoms came in and quickly brought it into WTT. Indonesian users extended its live.

Top Influencers: Dominated by K-Pop avatars  During the period of 21-23 December 2019, K-Pop avatars  e.g. @btss117 and @min_miso_yoongi, dominated the top influencers of #China_is_Terrorist hashtag.  @R4jaPurwa from Indonesia is among the top 5 influencers world wide.

Most Retweeted Posts  The post from @btss117 is the most popular one, with 42k retweets, and @min_miso_yoongi with 29k retweets.   These collections of posts shows their narratives.

More Most Retweeted Posts  To get more of their narratives, here are the collections of their most retweeted posts. The main message is, it is about humanity, and you don't need to be a Muslim to feel the pains of Uyghur.

From the top 200 most retweeted posts, here are the avatars of the authors.   Not all of them are K-Pop fans, but their faces are everywhere. This shows the solidarity of the fandoms for the Uyghurs.

Most Shared Images  If we look at the most retweeted images, the variations of the memes are not much, considering the hashtag is WTT.   The blue flag with crescent, blue masked face, and Ozil are the top icons of the images.

The #China_is_terrorist hashtag is frequently accompanied by these hashtags. Such as #SaveUyghur, #Uyghur, #China, #StandwithUyghurs, #PersecutionlnEastTurkestan, etc.

Now, let's breakdown the trend of the hashtag.

Actors, 21 December, 00:00 - 19:00 WIB  Initially, the hashtag was started by Turkish users. Most popular posts by @TunahanKaplann, @canayakin, @romantcfilozof, etc.   Memes and cartoon were created, and the most popular icon is a blue masked face.

SNA, 21 December, 00:00 - 19:00 WIB  The social network shows a cluster of Turkish and a cluster international users.

Actors, 21 December, 19:00 - 21:00 WIB   The trend was exploded as of 19:00 (WIB), when K-Pop Fandoms spread the hashtag.   Account @lila_la01 call the army to keep using the tag, and reach all people, organizations, and media in their network.

SNA, 21 December, 19:00 - 21:00 WIB   This social network clearly shows the international network of K-Pop fandoms. Indonesian cluster started to appear.

Actors, 21 December, 21:00 - 24:00 WIB   The K-Pop fandoms continued to spread the awareness. Among the top influencers are @aiesyahxhumaira, @reemnya, @my_btsarmy, etc.   Few memes were repeatedly shared, and the iconic blue masked face is the most popular one.

SNA, 21 December, 21:00 - 24:00 WIB  The Turkish cluster disappeared, the K-Pop fandoms getting bigger, as well as Indonesian cluster.

Actors, 22 December, 00:00 - 07:00 WIB  The K-Pop Fandoms spread further, to other languages than English, called the Armys to use their voices to speak.   Indonesian users @R4jaPurwa and @mas_piyuuu shared popular memes in their cluster.

SNA, 22 December, 00:00 - 07:00 WIB  This social network shows the mighty of the K-Pop Fandoms.   New clusters of Brazilians and Portuguese fans joined.

Actors, 22 December, 07:00 - 12:00 WIB  The K-Pop Fandoms keep spreading their voices: No need to be Muslim but this is a matter of humanity and justice.   Top 5 influencers: @min_miso_yoongi, @prazertom, @aleynaorsdemir, @btss117, and @Reemnya.

SNA, 22 December, 07:00 - 12:00 WIB  The power of the K-Pop Fandoms still can be seen in this network. The Indonesian cluster is getting stronger.

Actors, 22 December, 12:00 - 24:00 WIB  The Hongkong ralliers for Uyghurs just beat by Hkpolice.   The voices from K-Pop Fandoms were slowing down.   Then Indonesian cluster toke the lead. @R4jaPurwa is among the top 5 influencers now.

SNA, 22 December, 12:00 - 24:00 WIB  The Indonesian cluster shows their power when the international K-Pop Fandoms were slowing.

Summary  

  • The #China_is_Terrorist hashtag was initially started by Turkish users.
  • The hashtag cannot be an international trending tropic, until the K-Pop Fandoms jump in. They spread their voices to share the awareness of the injustice toward Uyghurs.
  • Indonesian users contributed a big cluster in the conversation. They are mostly from the opposition cluster.  
  • In total, more than 1 million conversations supporting the hashtag, within 3 days.