French News Outlet Faces Major Backlash After Confusing K-Pop’s SEVENTEEN With Indonesian Pop Group
A French news site has faced some serious backlash online after posting an article confusing K-Pop’s SEVENTEEN with an Indonesian pop group by the same name. While fans of both groups probably would have been upset with the major mixup regardless, it was made even worse by the article’s contents.
On Saturday a tsunami hit the islands of Sumatra and Java after a chunk of the volcanic Anak Krakatau island slipped into the ocean. The disaster has left at least 370 dead, thousands injured or missing, and many buildings damaged.
Among those who were affected by the disaster were Seventeen, the Indonesian pop group. They were performing on the beach at Tanjung Lesun Beach Resort when the massive wave crashed through the stage and audience.
Through a series of heartwrenching social media posts, the lead singer of the group reported that the group’s bassist and bassist’s wife were killed, the guitarist was missing and later announced dead, and that the singer’s wife is still missing.
While fans are mourning the loss of these great artists, they and many other netizens are upset with the outlet that misreported the information. Not only are people upset by the article…
They also believe it’s disrespectful to the Indonesian group as well as all the victims of the tsunami.
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“This is totally disrespectful of both the K-Pop group and the Indonesian group. Not only does this make fans of the K-Pop group unnecessarily worried, but it also isn’t properly respecting the Indonesian group. Please respect and honor the victims!”
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“Such disrespect for the deceased.”
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“Oh, this is great quality. All you had to do was Google it and you’d have seen the obvious mistake.”
Netizens have been pointing out the mistake as soon as the article went up and asking them to modify their post.
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“Modify your tweet, please. Respect the Indonesian Seventeen. They’re not the K-Pop group!”
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“This is absurd. Make the corrections already!”
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“It’s been an hour since people have told you to delete it because it’s the wrong group in the photo. Maybe it’s time to move your butts?”
After all the attention, the site has now amended their article as well as deleted their original tweet about it.
“Correction: Contrary to what this article said in its first version, the victims of this incident were not members of the Korean group SEVENTEEN but the Indonesian group of the same name.“
And for all those who were affected by the tsunami, our thoughts are with you.
