Big Hit Takes Legal Action Against Malicious Netizens, Updates BTS Fans
BTS‘s agency, Big Hit Entertainment, has updated fans about the legal measures taken to enforce their “zero tolerance” policy for malicious online behavior.
On August 26, the company posted an update about their current legal proceeding on BTS Weverse. Big Hit Entertainment states that they are in the process of persecuting those who have violated BTS’s artist rights through defamation, personal attacks, and more, based on evidence collected during the first half of 2019.
Big Hit Entertainment warns that they will show “no leniency or settlement with the perpetrators of these acts”, and that their “zero tolerance” stance will remain unchanged for as long as this behavior continues. Read their statement below:
We would like to provide an update on the legal proceedings against malicious online postings related to BTS.
Big Hit regularly initiates legal proceedings against malicious activities related to BTS including ill-intentioned criticism, the spread of groundless information, personal attacks and defamation, following out internal procedures.
Big Hit Shows “Zero Tolerance” For Malicious Commenters, Takes Legal Action
Legal proceedings are currently underway with postings collected during the first half of this year as evidence. We have filed complaints with the police on charges of defamation (Article 70 of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Ultilization and Information Protection, Etc.) and criminal insult (Article 311 of the Criminal Act) against netizens who have repeatedly uploaded malicious comments and postings in online communities, portals and social media that exceed the reasonable and accepted boundaries of expression and personal commentary.
Materials for evidence were collected via our own monitoring initiatives as well as through the Big hit hotline (protect@bighitcorp.com) and submitted to the police, and law enforcement agencies have launched investigations against the perpetrations based on this evidence. Please understand that we had to delay providing you with an update due to the need to maintain confidentiality while identifying and initiating legal proceedings against these perpetrators.
We have responded with zero tolerance against insults and defamation against our artists, and our stance will remain unchanged as long as these acts occur. We emphasize that there is and will be no leniency or settlement with the perpetrators of these acts.
We ask for your continued attention and cooperation.
We will continue to work to ensure that the rights of our artists are fully protected. Thank you.
— Big Hit Entertainment
