Netizen Who Spread Photos Of RIIZE’s Seunghan With Alleged Past Girlfriend Shares Public Apology
About a week ago, RIIZE‘s Seunghan became involved in a scandal after past photos of him allegedly in a hotel room with a past girlfriend. While some fans showed support for him and didn’t see the pictures as a big issue, others have gone so far as to demand for him to be removed from the group before they’ve even debuted.
Seunghan himself shared an apology for the photos, and SM Entertainment also vowed to take legal action against the people who spread the photos online.
Hello, this is SM Entertainment.
Recently, private photos of RIIZE members have been posted online without their permission on social media and online communities. We would like to express our position on this.
Unauthorized leakage and distribution of such media is clearly illegal and we are collecting data on the individuals who posted the pictures through Kwangya119 and other data monitoring. We will also collect data on secondary transmission of the pictures such as reposting, redistributing, and further spread.
We will file a complaint against any confirmed individuals who have committed a crime, so please be careful to not get involved in such an unwelcoming situation.
Meanwhile, Seunghan is deeply reflecting on the disappointment and damage he has caused to his team ahead of his debut.
We will closely manage and support RIIZE so they can focus on their activities in the future and we will work hard to show you good performances.
— SM Entertainment
Seemingly in response to this threat of legal actions, one of the netizens who spread the photos online shared a public apology on September 2 KST.
Their apology mostly focused on the fact that they had claimed the “girlfriend” in the pictures with Seunghan was underage at the time, claiming that they’d been given the wrong information from a Twitter friend of theirs. They’re now saying that that information was incorrect, and that they had posted the photos “for clout” due to how controversial it was.
An anonymous account posted the pictures saying they’re the girlfriend, born 2005. A Twitter friend of mine sent me the account, and I saw the pictures. At this point, the original tweet had been deleted already. But I wanted clout, so I saved the pictures and uploaded them to my account. I was wrong to have tweeted something so controversial, especially with hashtags of the persons involved… When things got out of hand, my IRL friend told me that I had the wrong info. So I reposted the tweet, quoting that the girlfriend isn’t a minor. And I talked about it on Spaces.
So, in conclusion, the girlfriend is not a minor.I admit my fault in this, and I’ve deleted my tweet about it. I’m sorry for having caused this trouble.
Fans aren’t impressed with the person’s apology, however. Most agree that they only seem to have apologized because they could be facing legal consequences for spreading the photos.
@xxeuk, the person who spread that seunghan was dating a minor just posted an apology and went private 😡 pic.twitter.com/ldIe6GBQr7
— tiff (@rzsnghan) September 1, 2023
ur apology won’t undo the damage that has been done on seunghan’s image and confidence U NEED TO ROT IN JAIL https://t.co/S38BLgnclI
— yna (@w0nbinism) September 2, 2023
almost ruined this young brother’s career before it even started and brought him to tears over some “oomf said 🤓👆🏾” shit is very dark-sided sinister loser behavior tbh https://t.co/g4QVDwoPV3
— shoobert hoobert fans 127ville (@suhmilktea) September 2, 2023
NOT THEM DELETING EVERYTHING ONCE SM SAID THEY WERE GONNA TAKE LEGAL ACTIONS pic.twitter.com/m14C0OKTcE https://t.co/aM9tk5IruZ
— Sosoo 🤍 (@Soniaso_) September 2, 2023
a simple sorry doesn’t suffice at all. he skipped promoting at shows with his members, he was mass harassed, he had people funding and sending trucks to his workplace demanding he leave the group and you expect a sorry to make up for the mental stress he must have gone through? https://t.co/XVNeOZHcfz
— 127nator (@hckism) September 1, 2023
Seunghan and SM Entertainment haven’t responded to the apology at this time.