Twitter’s Latest Policy Update May Help Protect K-Pop Idols From Sasaeng Fans
Many K-Pop idols are lucky enough to be able to do what they love; singing and performing for fans around the world. While this might seem perfect, there are some downsides to living in the spotlight, like dealing with sasaeng, or stalker “fans.”
Many idols have dealt with sasaeng fans who will often go to extremes, sometimes dangerous measures to talk to their idol, like waiting outside of their work locations or causing car accidents.
One of the locations where sasaengs are most active is at the airport. A Japanese YouTuber recently exposed the reality of stalker fans following fourth-generation group Drippin’ to the departure gate of their flight.
Often these sasaengs will be able to buy flight information online from Twitter accounts that sell idol information, like the one BTOB’s Yook Sungjae called out a few weeks ago for selling his phone number.
A new Twitter policy may put a stop to sasaengs being able to buy and sell information on the platform, however.
While Twitter has had many “exciting” things happen after new CEO Elon Musk took over the site, it was recently announced that a new policy update would be enacted to prohibit sharing someone else’s live location, including flight tracking.
Twitter’s updated policy also prohibits “asking for or offering a bounty or financial reward in exchange for posting someone’s private information,” as these sasaeng seller accounts do.
Accounts found to be violating this policy will be subject to instant account suspension.
We’ll remove Tweets that share this information, and accounts dedicated to sharing someone else’s live location will be suspended.
This new policy update will hopefully prevent these accounts from posting and sharing K-Pop idols flight information, making it more difficult for sasaengs to track idols down.