Justin Bieber to North Korea!

2010eventclassic

Published September 3, 2026

In July 2010, users of 4chan's /b/ board rigged an online fan poll on Justin Bieber's My World Tour website to send the 16-year-old pop star to perform in North Korea. The prank pushed the totalitarian state from 24th place to first with 659,488 votes, drew coverage from BBC, Wired and CBS, and stands as one of the defining 4chan raid stunts of the early 2010s.

prank memes4chan memestrolling memesbackfire memesunwilling celebrity memes

Overview

Justin Bieber to North Korea!, also called Project North Korea is Best Korea, was a coordinated poll-rigging raid run out of 4chan's /b/ (random) board in summer 20107. The target was a fan voting page tied to Bieber's My World Tour, which asked the public to pick the next country the teen singer should visit with no filter on which nations were eligible2. Anons treated the open ballot as an invitation and started clickswarming votes for Kim Jong-il's isolated dictatorship5.

The joke worked on two levels. The obvious payoff was the image of a 16-year-old Canadian pop star performing for a country that bans western music and denies internet access to almost all its citizens2. The subtler payoff was watching mainstream outlets like BBC News solemnly cover the stunt as if it were a legitimate diplomatic problem, which BoingBoing openly mocked at the time5. The prank became a shorthand example of how 4chan could bend a corporate marketing gimmick into international news within a week3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Faxo poll (host site) / 4chan /b/ (viral spread)
Creator
Anonymous
Date
2010

On May 3rd, 2010, a fan voting page launched on the site Faxo, letting users pick a country for Justin Bieber to visit during his My World Tour with no restrictions on eligible nations7. The contest was tied to Bieber's website and asked fans to choose the next stop, with the singer committing to perform in the winning country2. It was not officially endorsed by his record label, a detail the BBC pointed out later once the vote count started looking absurd1.

The pile-on started on June 29th, 2010, when threads on 4chan's /b/ board called for users to spam the Faxo page with votes for North Korea7. Within about 48 hours the country jumped from 24th place to first, several thousand votes ahead of Israel1. Cole Stryker's June 30th write-up on Urlesque, titled "4chan Tries to Send Justin Bieber to North Korea," was the first outlet to flag that the ballot had already crossed 100,000 votes7.

How It Spread

Coverage escalated fast in early July 2010. On July 2nd, The Independent ran a story noting that Israel's second-place standing was being dragged down by a competing 4chan campaign to send Bieber to Palestine2. On July 5th the BBC published "Prank leaves Justin Bieber facing tour of North Korea," quoting a spokesman for the North Korean Embassy in London who told reporters that any tour application would be handled by the country's UN mission and referred to Pyongyang1. BoingBoing picked up the BBC piece the same day and openly ribbed the broadcaster for its earnest tone5.

Wired weighed in on July 6th with "4chan Has Nearly Voted Justin Bieber to North Korea," noting that with about nine hours left, North Korea held a 9,437-vote margin over Israel and Poland before the tail-off3. CBS News echoed the framing, tying the vote raid to a pattern of Bieber-targeted 4chan stunts including a June push to make "Justin Bieber Syphilis" trend on Google4. Wired also linked the poll raid to a separate YouTube exploit that same weekend, which redirected Bieber video viewers to pornographic sites and pop-ups claiming the singer had died3.

Voting closed on July 7th, 2010 with North Korea on top at 659,488 votes7. Screenshots of the final tally were posted straight back to /b/, drawing more than 180 replies in the celebration thread7. Later that day MTV News ran "Justin Bieber is Not Going to North Korea, Rep Confirms," quoting a Bieber spokesperson who called the Faxo poll "not a legitimate contest" and confirmed the singer would not be honoring the result6.

How to Use This Meme

The stunt is referenced today as a template for a specific kind of internet mischief: find an open-ended online poll run by a mainstream brand or celebrity, then coordinate a mass-vote for the most absurd valid option. People invoke Justin Bieber to North Korea! whenever a similar raid appears, such as Mountain Dew's "Hitler did nothing wrong" flavor-naming vote or Boaty McBoatface, typically as shorthand for "never let the internet name anything." As a phrase, it works as a warning label on any unmoderated public ballot3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Justin Bieber to North Korea!

2010eventclassic

Published September 3, 2026

In July 2010, users of 4chan's /b/ board rigged an online fan poll on Justin Bieber's My World Tour website to send the 16-year-old pop star to perform in North Korea. The prank pushed the totalitarian state from 24th place to first with 659,488 votes, drew coverage from BBC, Wired and CBS, and stands as one of the defining 4chan raid stunts of the early 2010s.

prank memes 4chan memes trolling memes backfire memes unwilling celebrity memes

Overview

Justin Bieber to North Korea!, also called Project North Korea is Best Korea, was a coordinated poll-rigging raid run out of 4chan's /b/ (random) board in summer 20107. The target was a fan voting page tied to Bieber's My World Tour, which asked the public to pick the next country the teen singer should visit with no filter on which nations were eligible2. Anons treated the open ballot as an invitation and started clickswarming votes for Kim Jong-il's isolated dictatorship5.

The joke worked on two levels. The obvious payoff was the image of a 16-year-old Canadian pop star performing for a country that bans western music and denies internet access to almost all its citizens2. The subtler payoff was watching mainstream outlets like BBC News solemnly cover the stunt as if it were a legitimate diplomatic problem, which BoingBoing openly mocked at the time5. The prank became a shorthand example of how 4chan could bend a corporate marketing gimmick into international news within a week3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Faxo poll (host site) / 4chan /b/ (viral spread)
Creator
Anonymous
Date
2010

On May 3rd, 2010, a fan voting page launched on the site Faxo, letting users pick a country for Justin Bieber to visit during his My World Tour with no restrictions on eligible nations7. The contest was tied to Bieber's website and asked fans to choose the next stop, with the singer committing to perform in the winning country2. It was not officially endorsed by his record label, a detail the BBC pointed out later once the vote count started looking absurd1.

The pile-on started on June 29th, 2010, when threads on 4chan's /b/ board called for users to spam the Faxo page with votes for North Korea7. Within about 48 hours the country jumped from 24th place to first, several thousand votes ahead of Israel1. Cole Stryker's June 30th write-up on Urlesque, titled "4chan Tries to Send Justin Bieber to North Korea," was the first outlet to flag that the ballot had already crossed 100,000 votes7.

How It Spread

Coverage escalated fast in early July 2010. On July 2nd, The Independent ran a story noting that Israel's second-place standing was being dragged down by a competing 4chan campaign to send Bieber to Palestine2. On July 5th the BBC published "Prank leaves Justin Bieber facing tour of North Korea," quoting a spokesman for the North Korean Embassy in London who told reporters that any tour application would be handled by the country's UN mission and referred to Pyongyang1. BoingBoing picked up the BBC piece the same day and openly ribbed the broadcaster for its earnest tone5.

Wired weighed in on July 6th with "4chan Has Nearly Voted Justin Bieber to North Korea," noting that with about nine hours left, North Korea held a 9,437-vote margin over Israel and Poland before the tail-off3. CBS News echoed the framing, tying the vote raid to a pattern of Bieber-targeted 4chan stunts including a June push to make "Justin Bieber Syphilis" trend on Google4. Wired also linked the poll raid to a separate YouTube exploit that same weekend, which redirected Bieber video viewers to pornographic sites and pop-ups claiming the singer had died3.

Voting closed on July 7th, 2010 with North Korea on top at 659,488 votes7. Screenshots of the final tally were posted straight back to /b/, drawing more than 180 replies in the celebration thread7. Later that day MTV News ran "Justin Bieber is Not Going to North Korea, Rep Confirms," quoting a Bieber spokesperson who called the Faxo poll "not a legitimate contest" and confirmed the singer would not be honoring the result6.

How to Use This Meme

The stunt is referenced today as a template for a specific kind of internet mischief: find an open-ended online poll run by a mainstream brand or celebrity, then coordinate a mass-vote for the most absurd valid option. People invoke Justin Bieber to North Korea! whenever a similar raid appears, such as Mountain Dew's "Hitler did nothing wrong" flavor-naming vote or Boaty McBoatface, typically as shorthand for "never let the internet name anything." As a phrase, it works as a warning label on any unmoderated public ballot3.

Frequently Asked Questions