I wanna ask my followers a question.
Do you support kpop companies suing people online for their ‘malicious’ comments?
I don’t and the reason why I don’t is because I think South Korea hasn’t really defined what is a malicious comment. I’ve heard so many stories of netizens in South Korea getting sued for basically saying they don’t like a group’s clothing or for saying their music isn’t good. To me that falls under freedom of speech. If someone doesn’t like a idol group they should be able to say that and give a reason why.
I think malicious comments fall under threats or trolling. The comments that Sulli and Goo Hara were getting were definitely malicious. I also find it strange that SM Entertainment did nothing about those comments that were about Sulli, but were so quick to threaten to sue against comments talking about Irene or Taeyong. It seems like Kpop companies are most aligned to protect the kpop idols who do actual criminal activities, than the ones who don’t.
A good example of this was SM Entertainments response to Kangin. When he got his second DUI, SM Entertainment said they were gonna take action against any ‘malicious’ comments that were about him. I was so angry about that. Ya’ll let one of your idols get into another DUI controversy and instead of holding him accountable for his actions, you wanna attack the people online who are calling him out. What he did was criminal and the people have a right to call him out on his actions.
This is why I can’t get behind Heechul and is stance on online comments, because basically he only wants positive comments. Any comments that criticize him or his actions, he claims is malicious bullying. When in reality it isn’t.