Fans of K-pop have stepped into the spotlight as a political force, after claiming credit for derailing expectations of massive crowds for US President Donald Trump’s latest campaign rally and throwing their support behind the Black Lives Matter movement.

Thousands of K-pop fans and other social media users encouraged their followers on Twitter and TikTok to register for tickets for Trump’s Saturday appearance in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and then not show up – a prank that appears to have fuelled wildly inflated predictions of a huge turnout.

After Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale last week announced the event had received more than 1 million requests for tickets, the president ended up speaking at a 19,000-seat venue that was more than two thirds empty.

His campaign blamed the poor turnout on “radical protesters” – though few were reported at the scene – and the media scaring supporters away. Among the Democrats greeting the images of empty seats with glee was New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who thanked Generation Z “zoomers” and K-pop allies for their “contributions in the fight for justice”.

In South Korea, K-pop idols are known for their saccharine image rather than their stance on politics, but the emergence of socially aware bands such as BTS is transforming perceptions of the industry.

And while K-pop fans are known as the rallying force behind sold-out concerts and No 1 songs, the world has only recently taken notice of their political clout.

“From what I’ve seen these past few years, our fandom is extremely politically engaged,” said Adaeze Agbakoba, a 21-year old African-American BTS fan in Washington. “This is due to the fact that our fandom has the most diverse demographic in all of K-pop.

“Our numbers are in the tens of millions, and many polls and analyses have shown that the majority [of those in the BTS Army, as the group’s fans are known] are actually between the ages of 18 and 30.

“So most of us are at the very least university students and at the most working citizens who are old enough to vote, and are most likely educated on political topics and keeping up with the daily news.”

But why target Trump? Michael Hurt, a Korean-American visual sociologist and lecturer at Korea National University of Arts in Seoul, said K-pop fans tended to be more liberal and supportive of civil rights movements.

“[They have an] allergy to the boomer modes of political attack, avoidance of responsibility, and [old-fashioned] attitudes that Trump represents,” he said. “K-pop fandom, which is international, young, and digitally activated, has a lot of demographic overlap with the kind of people who are going to be most averse to Trump’s [discriminatory] messages.”

More importantly, Hurt added, these digital natives know how to do a “digital hit job” better than anyone else in the world. “No one else is able to do a complete digital assassination of Trump’s interests online than BTS’ fandom. So this makes a lot of sense.”