Everything
“You know what? I’m very impressed with our generation,” I admit to my housemate over breakfast this morning. We were talking about Millennial and Generation Z kids who deliberately sabotaged Donald Trump’s Tulsa campaign in Oklahoma over the past weekend. But years off the legal voting age, and amid a pandemic, how did they do it? With social media, of course.
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President Donald Trump once again gained headlines after he tweeted that over “one million” people had registered to attend the Republican rally on Saturday. However as evening came, the BoK Centre which holds a capacity of 19,000 appeared extremely empty, in fact, Tulsa Fire Department tallied the crowd at about 6,200 people. It was underwhelming to say the least and it’s exactly what TikTokers wanted.
READ: TWITTER IS FINALLY FACT-CHECKING DONALD TRUMP’S TWEETS
The plan was simple. Have hundreds of thousands of K-Pop fanatics and TikTok users register their interest using a fake name and number only to have Trump in a false sense of polling security. The rally was a strategy by Trump’s campaign team to rejuvenate voters after opinion polls revealed he was trailing behind Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
The city has seen a huge surge in Coronavirus cases with health authorities warning people that those who attend the rally could be at increased risk of catching the virus.
Democrat and U.S. Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to support the young people on their efforts. “Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID,” she tweeted on Saturday. “KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too,” she added.
KPop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too 😌
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 21, 2020
P!nk also took to Twitter, posting, “I think I sold that same place out in five minutes #donkeyshow.”
I think I sold that same place out in five minutes. 😹 #donkeyshow pic.twitter.com/JNOwjIQ3hB
— P!nk (@Pink) June 21, 2020
K-Pop fans were also the centre of #WhiteLivesMatter controversy last month when White Supremacists attempted to have the hashtag trending with racist propaganda. The Gen Z music lovers were quick to react however and flooded the Twitter feed with fan cams and K-Pop themed memes.
Stay tuned for more, we don’t believe these kids are done yet.