After death of K-pop’s Sulli, calls to strip cyberbullies of anonymity – from fellow singer and victim Solbi, music industry and fans

Solbi suffered bullying on social media after being wrongly identified in a sex video. She says it’s time to treat online abuse as ‘a serious social issue’

Fans petition South Korean president to adopt a real-name online comment system, and opinion poll finds 70 per cent support for it

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South Korean singer-actress Sulli was found dead this week. She had been the victim of vicious cyberbullying in the lead-up to her death.

Published: 2:30am, 18 Oct 2019Updated: 4:27am, 18 Oct 2019

Sulli, the South Korean singer-actress who was found dead this week, was a rare taboo-breaker in a world where K-pop stars’ every move is strictly monitored by their management. Her death has exposed another dark side of the industry that propelled a global craze.

She unveiled her relationship with rapper Choiza at the height of her career as a member of top girl group f(x) and was vocal about not wearing a bra, defying both the K-pop world’s careful brand management and conservative social attitudes towards young women – and provoking a stream of online criticism.

Before her death on Monday at age 25, Sulli, whose real name was Choi Jin-ri and who police said was suffering from severe depression, spoke out strongly against cyberbullying. Colleagues and experts said her death highlighted the constant barrage of malicious online comments faced by young female artists in the public eye.

“She wasn’t just an issue maker but I hope she will be remembered as a women’s rights activist who was free-spirited, who could truly speak her mind,” says Kwon Ji-an, a fellow South Korean singer and painter.

K-pop singer Solbi was also a victim of cyberbullying.

Sulli’s most recent public appearance had been in a television programme in which K-pop stars spoke about their experiences with malevolent online postings.

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