It is well-perceived that the K-Pop industry can be extremely brutal at times.
Unfortunately as it may sound, receiving hate becomes inevitable for Kpop idols.
Some idols out there have been witch-hunted to an extreme extent and even threatened to
be killed for extremely absurd reasons.
G-Dragon - for asking Suga what does the phrase on his shirt mean
In January 2019, a fierce debate broke out between ARMY and V.I.P as a story from the
past has been dug up.
Things started with Army accusing G-Dragon of looking down on their idols in one interview.
Specifically, during a Korean show with the participation of BigBang and BTS, G-Dragon
noticed a phrase on the shirt that BTS’s Suga was wearing and popped the question:
“What does it mean?”, making Suga speechless because he didn’t know either
To the majority of us, it seemed that he was just curious and wanted to break the ice with
his junior.
However, some ARMYs took it as an insult to the group, claiming G-Dragon was being sarcastic
at Suga for wearing fake clothes.
Back then, BTS were still in the early days of their career so their company didn’t
have money to buy them expensive clothes.
The shirts that Suga and other members wore that day were dirty cheap as each one was
only worth 16,000 won (about $12)
That’s why some so-called ARMYs felt insecure and held firm to their belief that G-Dragon
was despising BTS.
They even threatened to break his legs unless he apologized to Suga and other members.
These fans considered G-Dragon to be immature and inconsiderate for overestimating his position
and disdaining new Kpop artists.
These extreme comments were heavily criticized by not only BigBang’s supporters but also
the Kpop fans community.
They defended that G-Dragon had no intention of and no reason to look down on his juniors
and some so-called ARMYs were being overly sensitive and aggressive.
RM - for joking with his members
We all know that BTS members are no stranger to haters and antifans, especially the leader
of the group, RM, who often receives hatred for his unique appearance.
In the middle of 2015, RM received 2 serious death threats when he was on tour in the United
States with his group.
Initially, a Twitter user, who had now disabled his account, posted a photo of a gun and poured
direct hatred at Namjoon.
The picture was accompanied by a disturbing message: "Just brought my gun.
It's about to go down.
RIP Namjoon”, and the event hashtag #TRB in NYC.
Although this user later claimed that his account got hacked and he did not have any
intention of assassinating RM, the extreme aggression of the words included in the initial
tweet paired with the image of a gun made the organizers to abruptly conclude the concert
and cancel BTS’s hi-touch event.
Few weeks later, RM’s life was put in danger again when another Twitter user posted a death
threat on her account.
She uploaded an image of a shotgun and bullets with a deadly message: “RM will get shot
during his show “The red bullet” in America, he will never make it to the hotel.”
This person stated that she was being serious and was not trying to attain fame on the Internet.
Many speculated that these threats originated from a controversial interview that the group
had in Australia.
In this interview, RM was believed to make a colorist statement when talking about the
first impressions he had of his fellow members.
Specifically, he shared, “Well, when I first saw V and J-Hope I couldn’t see them because
they were too tanned, so when it got dark, I couldn’t find them.”
Nevertheless, the majority of netizens said that this was just a joke among the members
and some people didn’t need to be so sensitive and take this matter seriously, since BTS
members were well-known for maintaining a close relationship with each other.
Really, no one could have thought that some people actually took this as an insult and
threatened to put RM’s life at stake just for a mere joke.
Jimin - for… nothing
Another BTS member who received death threats from antifans was Jimin.
In 2018, Jimin received threats against his life by an anonymous user who claimed he would
kill Jimin while he was in Texas.
BigHit and the Texas police department were notified, and they both announced that they
will be on high alert.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time Jimin has been threatened by his haters.
In March 2017, another Twitter account uploaded multiple tweets with graphic content, claiming
that they will kill Jimin during BTS’s concert.
The death threats were then brought to attention when ARMY began warning the media, BTS members
and their agency by trending the hashtag #ArmysWillProtectJimin on Twitter.
Rumors have it that these messages originated from the user “Sel-ja“, also known as
“@AinsleyPaisley”, whose Twitter account had been suspended.
She was alleged of spreading false rumors that BTS members sexually assaulted a Brazillian
fan to disparage the reputation of the boys.
Needless to say, ARMYs and Jimin’s supporters were extremely outrageous at this unacceptable
act.
During BTS’s press conference, Jimin opened up about his feelings when constantly receiving
death threats.
He confessed that he worried more about his fans’ safety than himself yet still trusted
that BTS’s security staff will keep the members and their fans from danger.
Though Jimin’s tried to hide his worries, ARMYs still noticed his tiredness and exhaustion
due to the controversy.
Yeri - for being the 5th member of Red Velvet
As the latecomer of Red Velvet, Yeri had to deal with the overwhelming amount of hatred
poured on her.
During one livestream program amid the promotion of the group’s comeback song “Dumb Dumb”,
one antifan left a comment, saying: “Yeri, you should stop putting on an act or I will
put a knife on your neck.”
The 16-year-old girl was terrified and almost burst into tears.
On another occasion, Yeri posted her cover of Roy Kim's song on Instagram in 2018 and
the post was bombarded with hate.
The comment section is full of BTS fangirls threatening to kill her, claiming she "was…seducing
Jungkook'' as he posted his cover of the same song a few days ago
Though the original writer of the song, Roy Kim, praised Yeri for her sweet performance,
it’s hard for Yeri to be proud of herself due to the chaos in the comment section.
Many Kpop fans found it hard to understand why people can be so harsh on this little
girl just because she debuted with Red Velvet later than other members.
They also asked those who were pouring hatred on Yeri to stop as these people were getting
ridiculous and immature.
Lisa - for unknown reasons
In 2018, BLACKPINK‘s Lisa was targeted with death threats from antifans.
BLINKs around the world were trying to get YG Entertainment’s attention to ensure Lisa’s
safety.
Specifically, an Instagram user made a threat toward Lisa in their account attached with
a disturbing picture of a bunch of rifles.
This account then got inexplicably deleted.
Right after that, another Instagram user uploaded on their instagram story saying that their
“plan” wouldn’t be derailed.
This user then targeted the CEO of Lisa’s agency - Yang Hyun Suk, asking if he really
wants to protect his artists.
It was revealed that this user had a deep hatred toward Lisa, often cropping her out
of BLACKPINK’s photos and leaving hate comments on Lisa’s posts.
Until now, the reason behind this threat remained unknown.
Nevertheless, many BLINKs speculated that this user was just being jealous of Lisa for
her talents and successful career.
Needless to say, BLINKs were extremely worried about the situation and hoped that YG Entertainment
could have more severe security measures both online and offline to protect their artists.
It seemed that their wish had already come true, since BLACKPINK’s manager Jung Bo
Kyung posted a picture of himself taken by Lisa, with the hashtag #weprotectyou.
It is sad to see the life of our favorite Kpop artists being put in danger by some creeps
for such ridiculous reasons.
Hopefully, Kpop agencies would have more drastic measures to prevent these unwanted incidents
from happening.
Do you know any similar cases of Kpop artists being threatened?