Jennie ended up getting flooded with hateful comments like “leave V alone”, reported AllKpop, while V came under scrutiny too. The scandal lead to a fan war between Army and Blinks – BTS’ and Blackpink’s fans – as they rushed to defend their favourite stars.
V and Jennie weren’t the first to suffer either. Here are five other idols who faced public hate for their Instagram posts.
How much did K-drama’s biggest stars make per episode in 2021?
Naeun of Apink’s casual restaurant picture
In 2018, Son Na-eun, aka Naeun, hardly suspected that she would get chewed out after sharing a casual picture of herself sitting in a restaurant with a cup of coffee and a dessert, holding her phone in her hand.
She captioned the post “Girls can do anything”, which was the same line on the back of her phone case in the image.
According to AllKpop, the unassuming picture received shocking hate from netizens – as they believed Naeun was encouraging feminism, so they dissed her for the act. Koreaboo stated that Naeun’s post was met with hostile comments, with people even swearing at her.
The top 10 breakout K-drama actresses of 2021, from Jung Ho-yeon to Han So-hee
Naeun’s agency came to her defence to clear up the misunderstanding. According to Koreaboo, Plan A Entertainment said that the slogan was connected to the brand Zadig & Voltaire, which she was endorsing, and that she wasn’t directly promoting feminism.
But there were so many hateful comments on her Instagram post that Naeun ultimately ended up deleting the picture.
Sana of Twice’s post about Japan
Twice’s Sana had no idea that she would invite the fury of right-wing Korean nationalists when she dropped a post on the group’s official Instagram account with thoughts about her country.
In 2019, Sana, who is Japanese, spoke out about the end of the Heisei era – the reign of Emperor Akihito that ran from 1989 to 2019. According to Koreaboo, Sana wrote, “As someone born in the Heisei era, I am sad that it is coming to an end. However, Heisei, you worked hard. It’s the beginning of the Reiwa era [marked by Emperor Naruhito’s ascension to the throne], so I’m going to face the beginning and complete the last day of Heisei neatly.”AllKpop reported that she received comments like, “It was rude of her to post that” and “Twice didn’t post anything on Korea’s Independence Day. Why is she posting that there in all Japanese?” Other netizens complained about her speaking about Japan when she is earning money and working in Korea.
While it caused a stir, Sana’s agency, JYP, actually sided with her and did not take down the post. Many of her fans also came to her defence for having every right to speak about her own country.
Jisoo of Blackpink’s selfie
Another idol who got angry comments for showing off a phone cover? Blackpink’s Jisoo. What was supposed to be a simple mirror selfie in October captioned, “Wow, I barely changed it. New phone, cute case”, was not received well by netizens.
7 Korean celebrity couples who overcame tough times
The reason? Blackpink had previously endorsed Samsung and, while their contract ended in August 2020, Jisoo’s selfie showing her sudden change to an Apple iPhone attracted hate, with netizens accusing her of “not being loyal to” Samsung, according to Zoom Tv Entertainment.But given that her bandmates had previously also used Apple phones – even during the group’s contract with Samsung – Jisoo’s fans were quick to come to her aid and offer their love and support.
Leo of Vixx’s friendship with Exo’s Xiumin
So when Vixx’s Leo shared an adorable picture of him and Exo’s Xiumin together on Instagram captioned, “This boy! I love him”, fans swooned.
But the same innocent image also led to unexpected homophobic backlash for Leo when netizens questioned the affectionate nature of their relationship, as reported by Soompi.The same article explained that Leo later went on VLive to clear up the misunderstanding. He mentioned that he and Xiumin are nothing but very good friends – to the point that Xiumin knows the password to Leo’s house. Although there is no romance between the two, they often hug and pat each other on the back, so for Leo the photo simply showed a common gesture that he didn’t expect would be misinterpreted.
Leo ended up deleting and re-uploading the image, changing the caption “I love him” to just “This kid”.
Sowon posing with a Nazi soldier statue
Sowon, a former member of GFriend, sparked hate when she uploaded a picture of herself posing and “flirting” with a wax statue earlier this year.
Although the photo was intended to be tongue-in-cheek, the trouble was that the wax statue was of a Nazi soldier. According to News 18, many fans and netizens found the image extremely offensive, and were shocked that the K-idol would be so ignorant about world history.29 Korean stars who tested positive for Covid-19, including Blackpink’s Lisa
The article also mentioned one Polish fan who wrote that their family had suffered in the holocaust and that Sowon was obviously in the wrong. The fan went on to say that Sowon should apologise for posting the picture.
BBC reported that Sowon’s management company, Source Music, apologised and said that Sowon was shocked when she understood the significance of the image. The picture has since been deleted from her Instagram.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kuqKzwLOgp52jZMC1xcueZpydnJqvs7XTsmaaqqSesK2xjmxobnFoZX9wt4yppqmrXai1sK%2FKoqWgZZmjwLWtxquYpmWSlrCsuMCsn2ZwXZ6xsLjSZq6hp12cvLV5xaWYnKM%3D