HYBE Responds To Allegations Of Bang Si Hyuk Mistreating NewJeans, Gets Roasted By Netizens
This article is part of our coverage of HYBE vs. ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin. You can read more and view the entire timeline here.
HYBE has addressed the accusations against its founder, Bang Si Hyuk, for mistreating the members of NewJeans.
The very public rift between HYBE and ADOR’s CEO Min Hee Jin took another surprising turn recently when the parents of NewJeans members came forward with their stance. On May 14, Ilgan Sports published an exclusive report detailing an email sent to HYBE by the members’ parents and their legal representatives, where they claimed HYBE was ignoring its responsibilities toward the ADOR group. In particular, the email claimed that Bang Si Hyuk purposely ignored the NewJeans members when they greeted him, which brought a sleuth of criticism directed at the HYBE founder.
Even if you don’t recognize the NewJeans members, it’s just basic manners to accept someone’s greetings when they say hello first. Is that so difficult?
As parents, we were embarrassed and had nothing to say about this childish situation after hearing that it wasn’t just once or twice where they were deliberately avoided, but examples such as they were embarrassed that they were being ignored so they just stood in the elevator with blank expressions or noticing that he was pretending to not see them. They are just middle and high schoolers.
— NewJeans’ parents
Chosun Ilbo reported that a HYBE official had responded to the parents’ accusations, saying Bang Si Hyuk might have face blindness. But when the outlet reached out to HYBE for a response, the company said they had no official comments to offer. When asked specifically about Chairman Bang ignoring NewJeans members, the company again gave a vague reply, saying, “It’s difficult to respond.”
This lukewarm response has received yet another round of criticism from netizens, who took it as an admission of guilt.
- “If the face blindness is not a lie, then why is it difficult for them to respond? There’s obviously something more to it, and that’s why it must be hard to answer.”
- “I guess they can’t respond because [the face blindness is] not true. This is really bad.”
- “Ugh.”
- “Everything about this situation is really ridiculous.”
- “Ugh.”
- “This is really embarrassing.”
- “You’re telling me that kind of a person is the head of the company… Wow…”
- “Pathetic.”