HYBE Directly Addresses False Claims Regarding Leaked Internal Documents
Most recently, HYBE’s leaked internal documents caused a huge stir in K-Pop industry.
Previously, former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin stated her thoughts regarding the internal documents in an internal email in April.
The content is so biased that I suspect that it was distributed for some type of propaganda. We need facts such as numbers and want at least a minimum level of objectivity.
— Min Hee Jin
Recently, HYBE’s CEO Lee Jae Sang made an official apology regarding the documents.
The document contents were very inappropriate. We have immediately halted the writing of the document and we will create guidelines and strengthen internal control to prevent this from happening again.
— Lee Jae Sang
HYBE’s CEO Apologizes For The Company’s Inappropriate Internal Documents
However, they denied that this was reverse viral marketing (media play).
Most recently, Weverse magazine exposed a former editor-in-chief as the person who compiled the documents and that the rest of the team was reportedly unaware of the documents.
Weverse Magazine Exposes Employee Who Was Writing HYBE’s Controversial Internal Reports
Media outlet CBS NoCutNews held a Q&A with HYBE regarding the documents. Below is the full Q&A.
“Question: The Weverse Magazine team stated its official position on November 9. Why did they release a separate statement ten days after the CEO’s apology?
Answer: As you have heard, Lee Jae Sang made an apology on October 29 and removed the Weverse director who wrote the report from their position. Since then, there have been numerous suspicions that other members of the Weverse Magazine team were a part of writing the documents. Due to this, we decided to release an additional document to clarify.
Question: The Weverse Magazine team stated that, aside from the former editor-in-chief, no other members or external contributors knew about this document. Does this mean that the former editor-in-chief asked a separate staff that’s not part of the team, to write the report? Also, there is a part of the document that states, ‘The members who are participating in the report are taking off so the report will take a break for one week,’ which is being criticized as not being persuasive. What’s your position on this?
Answer: The former editor-in-chief created the monitoring document as a separate task from Weverse Magazine, and the personnel that the former editor requested are separate members from the Weverse Magazine team.
Question: The former editor-in-chief has been removed from their position. What is their current position? Are there any other follow-up measures in relation to this incident?
Answer: The former editor-in-chief is currently on standby and not working. After an internal review, appropriate measures will be taken.
Question: In the CEO’s apology, he denied the suspicion of reverse viral marketing. However, a netizen claiming to be a HYBE employee stated that many of the things in the report were actually planned. Do you still stand by the claim that there was no reverse viral marketing, and if they are false, are you preparing follow-up measures about this?
Answer: The claim that we used reverse viral marketing is not true. We are considering taking the appropriate measures regarding the false claims.
Question: You said you are contacting each agency separately to apologize directly. Please explain how and to what extent you are apologizing.
Answer: We apologized to each agency of the artists mentioned in the documents by phone or through official documents under the name of CEO Lee Jae Sang.”
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