Today the boycott of Koreaboo expires. Will it be extended? Read on and find out!
It’s the 30th of November 2025 at the time of writing this post, which maks 72 months since the boycott of k-pop website Koreaboo was activated by Kpopalypse. But, why was Koreaboo boycotted? Here’s the probably very boring backstory for those who came in late.
Koreaboo, aka “the Buzzfeed of K-pop” certainly isn’t the only low quality clickbait article k-pop website out there, in fact as we all know, lazy slop and regurgitated press releases is the standard procedure for k-pop “news” sites hoping to squeeze a dollarydoo out of gullible k-pop fans. But Koreaboo in particular came to my attention due to their coverage of the suicide of Sulli of f(x).
Whem Sulli suicided, all k-pop news sites had an article or two, as you’d reasonably expect. Some even had a few articles. However Koreaboo went into turbo overdrive, cranking out dozens of different Sulli articles around the clock in the 48 hours after her death. I documented this in a post called “Help for k-pop websites who don’t know exactly what to write about Sulli“, which explored the many articles that Koreaboo were making. Repeatedly spamming articles about celebrity suicide doesn’t just suck moose cock on a general “gosh this site really is clickbaiting for views” level, it has also been proven to increase suicide rates. This is documented in the World Health Organisation’s publication “Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals“:
The document recommends that media outlets do not constantly repeat articles about suicide for this reason:
So in other words, in the space of 48 hours after someone’s death, try to avoid doing this kind of thing:
The document also states that when the suicide is that of a celebrity, that it might be harmful to release speculatory articles in the rush to be “first!” in the endless war for media relevance, without having the full story:
So in other words, don’t rush out articles like this at the first sign of a celebrity being in trouble just because you want to be first with the scoop:
Oh and it’s also wise to be careful when reporting about the people who are in mourning because at such a sensitive time, they’re a suicide risk too. If you’ve ever had someone very close to you suicide, you’ll know this all too well first-hand.
I realise that the concept of respecting privacy of bereaved people might have a few gray areas where media reporting is concerned, but wherever the “do not cross” line happens to be, making fashion articles about the black clothes the mourners wore when they were on their way to the funeral seems like it might be on the wrong side of it:
So that’s how Koreaboo earned themselves a Kpopalypse boycott. And no, they weren’t the only news site doing this shit, but they were probably the most high-profile one that wasn’t already under boycott at the time for other reasons.
So – how have they performed? Has Koreaboo earned a boycott lift?
CRITERIA 1 – HAVE KOREABOO ACTUALLY FUCKING LEARNED ANYTHING?
Evidently not. Despite myself and others highlighting the issues with their reporting, Koreaboo did exactly the same thing when Astro’s Moonbin died a few years later, spamming endless articles once again, forcing me to write a sequel to my Sulli post, called “Help for k-pop websites who don’t know exactly what to write about Moonbin“. It was a very quick article for me to write because Koreaboo behaved in such a similar manner that I was able to just reuse most of the text from the Sulli article without even having to change much of it. Same relentless spamming of articles:
Same making fashion shoots out of mourners arriving at the airport en route to the funeral except this time it’s a fucking listicle:
And don’t even get me started on what happened when Goo Hara suicided:
So, did Koreaboo learn something? Yes, they learned that dead people bring them clicks.
CRITERIA 2 – DID KOREABOO APOLOGISE, OR PROMISE TO REFLECT AND RETURN WITH A MORE MATURE IMAGE?
Kpopalypse boycotts may seem harsh, but as my boycott tracker post states, it’s actually quite simple to circumvent a Kpopalypse boycott.
Any website can apologise and thereby skip to the review period straight away, and obviously I’m going to treat a website much nicer during the review period if they apologise. Unlike most k-pop fans, I don’t play checklist semantics when I assess apologies (“they didn’t apologise to the exactly affected community with the right words that I personally expect plus clap three times and do the secret hand sign”) but rather I just calmly accept the apology in good faith as long as the appropriate reflection is shown. Koreaboo could have apologised at any time but they did not. I even took to my long-dormant Twitter account to try to encourage Koreaboo in the final days of the boycott:
No such luck, nothing but silence. If only Koreaboo were as prolific at replying to Kpopalypse as they are at posting clickbait articles when someone dies, then I would have probably received about three dozen apologies in two days.
CRITERIA 3 – WHAT DO KPOPALYPSE’S READERS THINK?
Then I ran a quick poll on my recently reactivated Twitter because BlueSky can’t do polls yet (annoying… yes okay, checkmate to all you people who said “I’d be back”, I hope you never complain about me not making you happy), and asked my readers what they thought. I didn’t get many votes because most of you are now way too smart to even notice Twitter’s continued existence let alone post content there, but a few of you braved Elon Musk’s patriarchal death machine for long enough to leave a vote:
The vote was nearly unanimous – most of you wanted to see the Koreaboo boycott extended.
CRITERIA 4 – WHAT DOES KPOPALYPSE’S CAT THINK?
Of course, Kpopalypse.com is all about leaving no stone unturned so I went to the number one authority on shitty website, my cat.
She seemed barely interested her attention wandering frequently. It seems that it was difficult her her to focus… but maybe it was just because the content was so invigorating that it got her excited? It was difficult to ascertain definitive results from her reaction.
CRITERIA 5 – WHAT DOES KPOPALYPSE’S KOOKABURRA THINK?
As the results with my cat weren’t conclusive, I needed a second opinion.
This kookaburra was keen to get my attention, tapping on the window to make his presence known… until I showed him a Koreaboo article. Clearly disgusted with the low quality of peckbait articles, he promptly flew away to investigate better k-pop content.
CONCLUSION – BOYCOTT EXTENDED
New review date – November 31st 2031.
During this time:
- Koreaboo will not be linked to from kpopalypse.com in any posts published for the duration of the boycott period
- Koreaboo will be referred to as “The Buzzfeed of Kpop” only
- Comments referring to Koreaboo that refer to it by its original name instead of the new assigned name/s will be auto-moderated/edited to suit
- Readers will be encouraged not to visit the boycotted site under any circumstances
Will humanity still exist by 2031? Hopefully so, but if AI has finally become sentient and found a way to destroy us all, I entrust it to also take care of the Koreaboo review process in my absence at that time. In the meantime, Kpopalypse will return with more posts!
0 Comments