Unpacking the SEA-blings and Knetz feud

MANILA, Philippines – Around mid-February, Southeast Asian (SEA) and Korean netizens faced off following a Korean fan’s violation of concert rules in Malaysia.

The SEA community, called SEA-blings (from SEA and siblings), decried the Korean fan’s behavior during the concert. Korean netizens or Knetz, in turn, mocked the SEA fans. 

Over the next few days, what started as an isolated case of improper concert behavior snowballed into a full-blown internet war, with both sides hurling hostile remarks at each other. 

How did one incident escalate into an intense and vicious exchange so quickly? 

Act one

The chaos can be traced back to the January 31 concert of South Korean band Day6 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Like most K-pop concerts, professional cameras were prohibited at the venue. 

However, after the concert ended, Malaysian users complained on X that some Korean fansites snuck professional camera gear in, disrupting the locals’ concert experience. Fansites are professional fans who follow idols across countries, taking and sharing high-quality photos and videos, among other activities.

Concerts in SEA are highly anticipated events as most K-pop groups do not frequent the region as often as Japan or South Korea, and even if they did, it can be difficult for fans to secure tickets due to high demand. So when the news broke, the online SEA community rallied behind Malaysian fans, chastising the Korean fansite for breaking concert etiquette. 

The fansite eventually issued a public apology, but by then the issue had already taken on a different form. 

On X, Knetz challenged the SEA-blings to support their own local artists instead. When SEA fans retorted with video clips of SEA artists, Knetz mocked the acts. In particular, they targeted the music video by Indonesian pop act nona. 

Knetz also attacked the looks and skin tone of SEA-blings, with some going as far as to call them “monkeys.” 

Meanwhile, SEA-blings users detailed discrimination they experienced from South Koreans and highlighted that SEA fans are a major driver of global K-pop popularity. They also brought up other issues such as South Korea’s low birth rate, high suicide rates, English proficiency level, and the prevalence of plastic surgery culture there.

Escalating existing tensions

The recent concert incident unpacked ongoing tensions between the two groups.

In early February, a few days after the Day6 concert, a South Korean politician came under fire for suggesting importing young, unmarried women from Vietnam or Sri Lanka to improve the country’s declining birth rate. 

In a televised town hall, Kim Hee-soo, the head of the southern Jindo County, suggested that the women could be married off to young men in rural areas. This prompted the Vietnamese embassy in Korea to issue a diplomatic protest, and around 100 civic rights groups to condemn the official’s remarks. Kim was eventually removed from the Democratic Party of Korea. 

In July 2025, a video of a Vietnamese woman being physically and verbally assaulted by two female Korean tourists in Hanoi went viral due, sparking severe online backlash. The women were sacked by their Korean employer while many South Koreans online expressed shame regarding the women’s conduct. 

Tipping the power imbalance

These events exacerbated SEA-blings’ frustration with Knetz, to the point of SEA fans from Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia calling for a K-pop boycott.

Brian U. Doce, a lecturer at the Department of International Studies in De La Salle University, said, “In the past, East Asians have exercised feelings of superiority towards Southeast Asians because of the rapid economic development East Asian states experienced since the 1960s.”

This economic boom led to an influx of SEA workers to East Asian countries, including South Korea. 

From an economic perspective, while SEA receives South Korean aid and investment, South Korea’s entertainment industry also benefits from the influx of SEA visitors.

So, what’s causing the tensions to inflate? Doce pointed out that the economic improvement of SEA states has transformed the region from a mere recipient of aid from East Asian states into a key market. 

He added, “The gradual economic rise of SEA produces tensions, and these tensions are now manifesting within the global circulation of South Korea popular culture.”

Doce believes that the South Korean government carries most of the burden in resolving the issue. For years now, the state has used K-pop and K-culture as an instrument of soft power, a strategy to enhance its global image through cultural exchange.

To illustrate just how committed the Korean government is to its soft power strategy, Doce points out that the government enacted a Public Diplomacy Act in 2016, which mandates that Korean citizens serve as cultural ambassadors to promote South Korea’s soft power and image abroad.

War is over, for now

What do Koreans living in SEA think of the whole debacle? 

In an Instagram post, Philippines-based South Korean influencer JinHo Bae condemned Koreans who engage in discriminatory behavior, calling the hostile Knetz users “wrong representation of Koreans.”

Bae, who has been living in the Philippines since 2003, said that regardless of where someone grew up, everyone knows that discrimination is not right. 

While the SEA-blings vs. Knetz issue has simmered, there’s no telling when the next flash point will come — or what form it will take. 

For now, the incident serves as a sobering reminder of how quickly things can get ugly on social media, especially when tensions are already running high. – Rappler.com