Blackpink label to take legal action after Jennie photos leaked and widely shared on social media, fuelling rumours she is dating V of BTS
- Private and personal photos of Jennie from Blackpink have been circulating online that fuelled rumours she is dating V from BTS
- Blackpink’s label, YG Entertainment, says it will take legal action against the sharers of the photos and those who have spread malicious rumours about Jennie
Photos shared online allegedly showing moments from the private life of Jennie from K-pop girl group Blackpink have led the group’s South Korean music label YG Entertainment to announce it will be taking legal action.
The action would target people who have shared photos of Jennie, and those who have spread malicious rumours about the star, YG Entertainment said.
YG did not refer directly to the hacking allegation, but said it had contacted South Korean police in September in a bid to stop “excessively malicious posts” that were showing up on social media.
In South Korea, any malicious statement, true or false, counts as defamation as long as it can be proven to have harmed its target.
“We plan on taking all [possible] legal action without any leniency for further harm that occurs,” said YG, in a statement translated by K-pop website Soompi. “The photos that have circulated online were revealed illegally regardless of personal intentions.
“The act of sharing [these personal photos] is not only a secondary offence, but it is also subject to legal punishment. We sincerely ask that you avoid this indiscriminate sharing.”
Previously, the company has said it stayed silent in an attempt to “minimise any further damage”. YG Entertainment doesn’t address rumours about the dating life of its stars unless those stars have already spoken out about them.
This is not typical in South Korea, where celebrity dating scandals often damage the careers of stars, especially K-pop idols.
YG Entertainment’s statement comes after BTS’ management company, BigHit Music, a subsidiary of Hybe, issued a similar statement on September 29.
“Our company regularly initiates legal proceedings against perpetrators of malicious activities related to BTS, including defamation, personal attacks, sexual harassment, the spread of groundless information, and ill-intentioned criticism. We would like to provide an update on these statements,” it reads.
It adds: “We have found multiple [defamatory] postings containing false information about the artists on platforms in and outside Korea. We also have found that a specific poster has been spreading the same … rumour in multiple platforms and [we have] filed a criminal complaint against the poster.”
Despite BigHit’s statement, the BBC reports that one of the alleged leakers, who posts under the username Gurumiharibo, shared on social media that they had not been targeted by the entertainment companies – making it unclear whether the September 29 statement was about the photo leaks or another incident.
Jennie will be appearing in the American television series The Idol, which will air on HBO sometime in November.
