HYBE has denied the allegations.
On October 24, KST, MOVES The representatives participated in an audit at the National Assembly, during which they were asked whether an internal report denigrated the idols.
During the audit, Rep. Min Hyung Bae of the Democratic Party revealed an internal HYBE report titled “Music Industry Weekly Report.” This report is apparently published weekly and sent to C-level executives at HYBE and its affiliated labels.
Representative Min pointed out that the document was full of crude expressions used to describe idols, even minor ones. Some of the sentences he highlighted included: “Since the members debuted at an age where they were all ugly, none of them have the facial features of an idol, “”There is a clear tendency to focus on their looks or sex appeal, “” “Surprisingly, none of them are nice,” AND “[they are] incredibly ugly,” among others.
Rep. Min rebuked these comments, pointing out how they showed impersonal perceptions and attitudes in HYBE toward idols. Kim Tae Ho, MOBILE’s COO e BELIFT Lab’The CEO of , responded to this issue by saying that it was one of many monitoring reports made in HYBE and that he could not remember its contents correctly. He also defended the company, saying that the comments did not reflect HYBE’s personal judgment on idols, but were merely a collection of public opinions from various online articles.
Despite this explanation, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Yoo In Chon, called the comments “hard” AND “excessive.” Later, when the controversy swelled, HYBE released an official statement regarding the document. They reiterated that the report only contained excerpts of reactions from online communities and social media and did not represent HYBE’s personal position regarding idols. They also threatened legal action against those who leaked the report to the public and allegedly edited the content in a provocative manner to insinuate that HYBE was denigrating artists.
Meanwhile, HYBE reportedly admitted to doing so decorations during the audit without realizing it. You can read more about it here.
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