South Korean government orders an investigation on HYBE’s alleged chart-rigging practice

South Korean government orders an investigation on HYBE’s alleged chart-rigging practice

Have you seen the hashtag or topic, “SOUTH KOREA APOLOGIZE TO BTS” on X? That’s all thanks to BTS’ fan club, ARMY.

Over the weekend, ARMYs started and held an online protest against the South Korean government with the hashtag, “SOUTH KOREA APOLOGIZE TO BTS,” when news broke out that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism ordered an investigation into the sajaegi allegations against HYBE, BTS’ agency.

On Saturday, May 3, 2024, the South Korean culture ministry said that they had received a petition to investigate the reasons behind why HYBE was blackmailed and paid off the said blackmailers in 2017. The Korea Creative Content Aegncy (KOCCA) will be leading a thorough investigation on HYBE.

Another petition to the South Korean culture ministry said that should the sajaegi allegations be true, the Order of Cultural Merit given to BTS should be retracted.

Because of these circumstances, ARMYs then held an online protest on different social media platforms.

https://twitter.com/sugarap_1993/status/1786989554807054594

For context: BTS and HYBE were formerly embroiled in allegations of illegal chart manipulation, or sajaegi since 2015 and 2017. The first wave of allegations came in 2015, with BTS’ mini album at the time, ‘The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 1’.

The album had propelled BTS into mainstream fame. There were court documents in 2017 stating that someone was threatening to expose BTS for allegedly using illegal marketing tactics.

HYBE has since then denied all these allegations and said that they will be monitoring and reporting malicious posts that are damaging to BTS.

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