As part of album promotions or for special events, stars will often hold fan signings where fans can meet them up close and personal. Following the COVID-19 lockdowns, many groups started doing these fan signs online, allowing fans worldwide a chance to enter.
Recently, a fan call involving SEVENTEEN‘s Joshua became a topic of discussion online, ultimately sparking outrage.
On June 8, Joshua participated in video calls for the group’s recent comeback. In a post shared online, one fan claimed that Joshua was distracted by his phone while they were speaking.
They shared their outrage, mentioning the high cost of participating in fan calls.
I was talking about myself here, when he suddenly laughed while looking at the phone. Did I spend tens of thousands of dollars to watch you play on your phone?
— Fan
He looked up to listen to me.
— Fan
To win video call events, fans purchase albums, each counting as an entry into a raffle. Fans can spend thousands of dollars attempting to win, which makes the event even more special. An idol being on their phone during a call with a fan would be considered very rude because of this.
However, the alleged real story behind the fan’s accusation was discovered shortly after.
On the same day, an account on X shared their interaction with Joshua, saying that they asked him to sing part of SEVENTEEN’s “Hug.” Their post said that Joshua could not remember the lyrics, so he had to look them up on his phone.
240608 영통 포옹 2024ver.
포옹 노래가 너무 좋아서 슈아에게 부탁했는데ㅠㅠㅠ가사가 잘 기억이 안나서 핸드폰으로 검색해보니👀👀
검색해보면서 미안하다고 하네요ㅋㅋㅋ #조슈아 #Joshua #세븐틴 #Seventeen pic.twitter.com/0I7z9jCebV— 양념치키 (@OnightC) June 8, 2024
“Hug” 2024ver.
I asked Shua to sing it because I love “Hug” so much, but because he couldn’t remember the lyrics well he searched on his phone. While searching, he said sorry haha.
— @OnightC/X
Eagle-eyed fans quickly noticed that this clip matched the posts made by the fan that accused Joshua of looking at his phone, comparing the two using an overlay effect. Many accused the poster of making up a story in order to make Joshua look bad.
She asking JS to sing Hug during the fancall. Since Joshua didn’t remember the lyrics, he looked up the lyrics on his phone and also said sorry. And then she post this video on xhs blaming he for playing on the phone while fancall?
Why did you lie to JS disadvantage like that? https://t.co/XLj3Ck16vc pic.twitter.com/pnybHCvFyv— 💙 (@cocoshu1230) June 8, 2024
for everyone’s awareness, this video is supposed to be cute. not until op posted this video on a chinese website saying that js was just playing with his phone instead of singing her request. i honestly need joshua to start punching disrespectful people on fansign events https://t.co/EZrNZIyApL
— ⚝ (@hjsbase) June 8, 2024
It’s not hard to see that these 2 videos are from the same source. The video posted on twt is the middle part of the fancall and the video on xhs has been cut out from the part JS sings and said sorry to her. I hope @OnightC will speak up if we have misunderstood. But if you+ https://t.co/o7IFaBKgT1 pic.twitter.com/xMEWD7woPR
— 💙 (@cocoshu1230) June 8, 2024
After this discovery, fans were left under the believe that this was a purposeful attack on Joshua, who has dealt with negativity since his dating rumors in 2023. In response, many have trended #PLEDIS_PROTECT_JOSHUA and asked the company to ban those that attack him from events.
Pledis have sm time filing petitions & involving themselves in issues that doesn’t concern them but can’t even protect their own artists
PROTECT YOUR ARTIST
PROTECT JOSHUA#PLEDIS_PROTECT_JOSHUA#명예훼손으로부터_조슈아_보호하다#PLEDIS_PROTECT_YOUR_ARTISTS@pledis17_STAFF pic.twitter.com/TbW73tHbUr— 𓍯𓂃h (@sound_of_coupsx) June 9, 2024
not you again, this man needs to be protected at all cost. he’s nothing but a pure soul; he doesn’t deserve this. PLEDIS DO YOUR JOB!
PROTECT JOSHUA!#PLEDIS_PROTECT_JOSHUA#명예훼손으로부터_조슈아_보호하다#PLEDIS_PROTECT_YOUR_ARTISTS @pledis17_STAFF pic.twitter.com/drZRDLzJM3
— oreo with wonwoo • junhui day! 🐈 (@heybabydeul) June 9, 2024
PLEDIS, DO YOUR JOB ‼️#PLEDIS_PROTECT_JOSHUA#명예훼손으로부터_조슈아_보호하다#PLEDIS_PROTECT_YOUR_ARTISTS @pledis17_STAFF pic.twitter.com/M3LYDmzVoJ
— ace 🩺 (@EVERYW0NWOO) June 9, 2024
