Voting for one’s favorite idols and artists at award shows is nothing unfamiliar to fans in general, and especially to K-pop fans. This is particularly true when it comes to a globally renowned award like the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), which has a history of over 40 years honoring the year’s most outstanding music videos across multiple categories.

Because of its global influence, being nominated for or winning a VMA is a significant milestone in an artist’s career. What’s important is that many of the main categories—such as Video of the Year, Artist of the Year, Song of the Summer, Best K-pop, and more—are decided by fan voting on the official website or via social media.

As a result, fans have come up with various creative ways to help their idols secure more votes. However, while some мєтнods are positively received, others have sparked controversy, even leading to fraudulent practices or extreme behavior among certain fans.

On August 7, the list of nominees was revealed—and soon after, a controversy involving ARMYs and Jimin broke out.

Specifically, this year, Jimin and “Who” were among the nominees for Best K-pop. Naturally, the fandom became highly active in supporting him, even encouraging friends and family to vote. However, one voting мєтнod by a self-proclaimed Jimin fan caused outrage across social media.

A post on X (formerly Twitter), which has since garnered over 2 million views, expressed ѕнσ¢к at the content of a tweet, calling it “a new low.” According to a screenshot, one account on X claimed they had secured additional votes for Jimin from children in an orphanage they had visited by giving out snacks.

Even though the user captioned it with “I asked permisson from the staff”, the original poster (OP) was met with accusations of child exploitation. OP later responded by saying that encouraging votes for Jimin had been approved by the orphanage staff.

Some other accounts, allegedly from the same volunteer group, also argued that donating snacks in exchange for votes for Jimin was not wrong.

What stood out even more, however, was that some ARMYs discovered these actions might have been a scheme to make them appear as extreme fans—or even bait intended to tarnish Jimin and ARMYs’ reputation. Fans noticed that the food images used in the post were actually taken from Pinterest, from a user who regularly uploads food pictures, rather than being “snacks donated to orphans” as OP claimed.

Moreover, the original account that made the post was not named in the viral repost, raising further suspicion that this might have been a setup. Meanwhile, several accounts that defended OP’s actions have since gone private or deleted their earlier rebuttals.

Even so, the original post continued to face heavy criticism, with many pointing out that exploiting vulnerable children for personal purposes is fundamentally wrong. K-pop fans argued that charity work should not stem from self-serving intentions—even if it’s for supporting an idol.

At the same time, many ARMYs also condemned the fan’s behavior, calling it an excessive and toxic form of obsession with achievements. They stressed that even without such tactics, Jimin could win the category through the fandom’s genuine and positive support.

Some comments on the matter collected from X include:

- Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse.. Rage bait or not this is SICK

- She really invented an entire fake story+ using Pinterest pictures just to paint Jimin and his fans in the worst light! A disgusting new level of cosplaying. 

- i wonder how many other fake stories you all spit out , truly disgusting

- And then comparing it with asking your siblings or cousins to vote, like they cannot be for real, there a ton of difference between asking some relative to vote and FORCING ORPHANS TO VOTE IN CHANGE OF SOME FOOD, you cannot be so inhumane to do that

- Using children to do bulk tasks like this, especially under the guise of “fun” or “support,” counts as exploitation of children. I don’t think Jimin would be happy knowing kids were used this way

- Glad to know there was no credibility to the story. And I may get a lot of hate for this but some Jimin fans really hyped this up as being a good thing and when others criticised it, were attacked. As fans, we need to do better.

- Nobody in this position, ESPECIALLY if they're younger, would say no to doing soмєтнing like this bc they might fear losing whatever you're providing them with, even if it's just pizza. Offering ORPHANS delicious food in exchange for them voting for your fave is DIABOLICAL