Starbucks bars customers in South Korea from turning their orders into political statements

Starbucks has barred customers from using the names of presidential candidates in their orders ahead of a tense election.

SEOUL, South Korea — Ordering coffee in South Korea? Not if your name is Lee Jae-myung.

Starbucks customers in the East Asian democracy have been barred from using the names of South Korea’s six presidential candidates in their orders until the election on June 3.

A spokesperson for Starbucks Korea told NBC News by phone Friday that the policy was introduced “in order to prevent inappropriate and abusive use of the names.”

In recent months, South Koreans have increasingly used Starbucks as a political platform — ordering drinks through the app under politicians’ names instead of their own, sometimes combined with calls to support or oppose them. Those entreaties are then repeated by baristas when they call out the orders for pickup in stores.

Businesses such as Starbucks are anxious to appear neutral given the tense political atmosphere in South Korea, where voters are choosing a successor to former President Yoon Suk Yeol after he was impeached over his botched martial law declaration late last year.