The K-pop concert that sparked an online war across Asia

Baca dalam Bahasa Indonesia

Mumpuni Ken Desti has been a loyal fan of K-pop for more than a decade. 

But an online feud has made her reconsider travelling to South Korea for a holiday. 

"Now, if I think about travelling overseas, [South] Korea becomes the last option," said Ms Desti, who is Indonesian.

The feud started in late January, when attendees of a concert by the Korean boy band Day6 in Kuala Lumpur raised concerns about the prohibited use of professional cameras and recording equipment by Korean fans.

After the concert, audience members from Malaysia took to social media to criticise the Korean fans, who were members of fan-run social media accounts called "fansites", saying they did not respect concert rules.

However, South Korean netizens — who are often referred to as Knetz — defended the fans in solidarity.

The online clash escalated, with South-East Asian netizens also rallying in solidarity under the hashtag "SEAblings".

SEAblings combines the words South-East Asia — including Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — and siblings.

The dispute first broke out on X, but eventually spread to other social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. 

According to Indonesia's social media monitoring platform Drone Emprit, posts related to the "Knetz vs SEAblings" issue attracted 18,000 mentions and 222 million engagements across the platforms.

Both camps traded insults, and many posts on social media, particularly from Knetz users, turned racist.

Some mocked the facial features and darker skin tones of people from South-East Asian countries.

"Since the Knetz vs SEAblings incident, and after seeing perspectives and vlogs from people in Korea, I've learnt its dark side," Ms Desti said.

While Ms Desti still supports her K-pop idol, Treasure Maker, she has decided to follow other girl bands from Indonesia.

"I've enjoyed following [the girl group] No Na and setting K-pop aside," she said.

"I would rather do this than seeing people arguing, being mad, and throwing shade at each other on X."

Some South Korean content creators have apologised over the insults, with one TikTok user saying: "On behalf of Korea, I want to say that I apologise. Racism should never happen."

South Korean content creator and student in Indonesia, Jin Seunghyeon, told the ABC the feud had given people the wrong impression of South Koreans.

"I believe that in the current situation, Indonesians view South Koreans as racist in general, which is far from true in my perspective," he said.

'Systematic racism'

Indonesia is K-pop's biggest market in South-East Asia, according to global analytics platform K-pop Radar, but the online feud has caused many fans to call for the boycott of K-concerts and Korean culture more broadly.

"Foreign pop culture in Indonesia today is dominated by the Korean Wave, whether it's K-pop, K-drama, or even the beauty industry, K-beauty, and tourism," said Ranny Rastati, a Korean pop culture researcher at Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency.

Ms Rastati said that while the feud would not likely have a significant impact on revenue generated by Korean industries, fans may start consuming more content from other countries, such as China and Thailand.

"I think if these two countries can take advantage of the Knetz vs SEAblings incident, it could strengthen their dominance over K-Pop," she said.

Ms Rastati said the internet feud had also touched on "systemic racism" in South Korea, against South-East Asians, and "those with darker skin".

Ivy Tania, from Indonesia, said she faced racial discrimination when she travelled to South Korea in 2014 to train as a K-pop idol.

Ms Tania said she and her American friend were refused entry to a sauna in Busan because of the colour of their skin.

On the same trip, a shopkeeper refused to sell them food, she said.

South Korea and Japan are the only countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to lack a comprehensive anti-discrimination law, but several bills have been proposed in South Korea's parliament over the years.

'National identity' emphasised ethnic unity

University of Melbourne Korean Studies lecturer Jihye Kim said racism and discrimination were increasingly being recognised and debated in society.

"Historically, the strong belief in ethnic homogeneity and shared bloodline contributed to a national identity that emphasised cultural and ethnic unity," she said.

"While this helped foster social cohesion in earlier periods [during the period of Japanese colonial rule], it also made it difficult to fully accept ethnic diversity once immigration increased."

Dr Kim said the idea of ethnic homogeneity was challenged in the 1990s, when South Korea started to receive increasing numbers of migrants, including from South-East Asia.

She said the majority of these workers filled labour shortages in manufacturing and construction, with women from countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Cambodia marrying rural Korean men.

"Many South-East Asians entered Korea through labour migration systems or international marriage, which often placed them in socially vulnerable positions," Dr Kim said.

"This has sometimes reinforced stereotypes and unequal social relations."

But she said public awareness of the issue in South Korean society was growing.

"Civil society organisations, media discussions, and academia are increasingly addressing discrimination and advocating for more inclusive attitudes toward South-East Asians," she said.

Online stoush reveals 'cultural lag'

Adam Zulawnik, another Korean studies expert at Melbourne University, said the South Korean government should look at introducing hate speech laws and address the issue of hate speech online.

"The South Korean government has talked about tackling racism both in society and legislature, with President Lee [Jae-myung] at the end of last year actually saying that there should be some hate speech laws in South Korea, which is not the case currently.

"What we are seeing within this issue is cultural lag, whereby domestic South Korean attitudes towards the outside world are falling behind, you know, this immense global exposure that South Korean pop culture has attained in the past two decades, in particular."

According to the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute, the K-pop industry raked in nearly $900 million from overseas markets in 2023.

The ABC has approached the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and Korea Culture and Tourism Institute for comment.

Stoush unites South-East Asians

Some experts observed that the online stoush also brought together social media users across South-East Asia.

"From the South-East Asians' perspective, the interaction was really positive, because they formed solidarity against racism and discrimination," said Syifa Nabila Syaharani Jauhari, an analyst at the social media monitoring platform Drone Emprit.

"We used to fight and insult each other, but South-East Asian countries have now become united."

Ms Jauhari noted most South-East Asian users across platforms responded with humour and memes to the racist insults.

She added social media platforms' algorithms had also elevated the discussion and carried it beyond the K-pop community.

"It seems like it [the algorithm] has an impact because … in the end, it wasn't just the K-Pop fanbase that joined, but also ordinary citizens, and not just in Indonesia, but also in many other countries," she said.

Ms Desti said while the racist comments were disappointing, it was encouraging to see the online communities from across South-East Asia rallying in solidarity.

"After seeing reactions by Indonesians who turned it into entertainment … I've decided to let it go," she said.

X and Meta have also been approached for comment.