Trigger warning: death threats, stalking
On July 1, a Facebook page allegedly sent death threats to Nayeon of K-pop group TWICE. It was a verified page with over 20,000 likes that posted photos of the K-pop singer with captions containing plans to kill her. The page has already been deleted, but fans continue to urge JYP Entertainment (JYPE), TWICE’s entertainment company, to increase Nayeon’s security. #ProtectNayeon trended on Twitter shortly after.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time that Nayeon received death threats. Back in April, Koreaboo reported that a stalker followed Nayeon during TWICE’s flight to South Korea from Japan and later on also leaked TWICE member Chaeyoung’s personal phone number. JYPE filed a restraining order against him but it was withdrawn due to delivery problems when the stalker flew home to Germany. However, fans still urged JYPE to heighten TWICE’s security since he allegedly wrote several text messages threatening to kill Nayeon if she “dates secretly.”
K-pop idols are known to have the biggest and most dedicated fanbases in the entertainment industry. These fans are known to exert so much effort to promote their idols throughout their careers by bringing millions of streams to their music and videos, paying advertisers to promote their music and even donating to charities in their idols’ names. However, this dedication has led some fans to become extremely obsessed with their idols to the point of invading their private lives. This has become so common in the industry that people call them “sasaengs” which means private life in Korean but, for this case, obsessive fans. Sasaengs are known to invade their idols’ privacy by stalking or even attempting to kidnap them.
Jenna Gibson, a Korea specialist at the University of Chicago, explained this phenomenon to CNN Entertainment saying “because fans put in so much effort to promote and publicize a good image of their idol, some of them get the idea that they should have some say over the idol’s actions and personal life.” This has led some entertainment companies to include dating bans in the contracts of their artists to avoid backlash from their fans.
While fans trended #ProtectNayeon to bring awareness to the threats against Nayeon, many are still urging more to email JYPE at fan@jype.com to protect TWICE and their other artists.
Photo screengrabbed from the “More & More” music video
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