After K-pop star Sunmi received death threats for her appearance on a program, her agency has promised to pursue legal action against trolls.
After she received death threats for her appearance on the popular South Korean idol audition show Girls Planet 999, K-pop soloist Sunmi’s agency has promised to take legal action against malicious commenters and online trolls.
The incident comes days after Sunmi saw and personally responded to some of the threats she received after appearing on the show, which prompted renewed conversation about the treatment of female idols in the public sphere.
Supporting Sunmi in an official statement, her agency Abyss Company said: “Hiding behind the mask of anonymity on the internet and slandering and cursing at artists is a definite crime. To protect the rights and interests of our agency artist, our priority is to take strong legal action that results in paying the price without any mercy, against malicious acts that infringe upon our artist’s character.”
On Sunday, Sunmi posted screenshots of some posts from an online discussion forum for Girls Planet 999, which featured disturbing language used in context of the star. One comment called her a “crazy shaman bitch”, while another read: “How should I kill this bitch Sunmi (sic).”
Sunmi responded to the comments in a series of tweets, saying: “What did I do that was so wrong? What should I do?”
“What about me made you hate seeing me so much and made you want to kill me? Was it my judging standards that I mentioned in Episode 1?,” she continued. “Up until now, I’ve been monitoring [the show] and making efforts to talk [on the program] in a way that more people would be able to relate to and understand. I also genuinely spent every moment sincerely thinking about what more I could do for our [contestants].”
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This isn’t the first time Sunmi or her agency have pursued legal action against trolls. The star has been vocal about being affected by online hate in the past, even working it into her music.
“There’s a lot of things that are almost untrue. There’s a lot of cases when people who hate us write novel-like comments. And then there comes a moment when it’s hard to hold out. It’s not that I’m angry at seeing it…we usually put up with it. If I’m angry, I’ll put up with it, anyway,” she said on her Youtube talk show in June 2020.
You can read more about this topic over at the Asia Pop Observer.
