On January 15, KST, Starship Entertainment (Starship hereon) issued a formal apology for reposting a questionable post regarding IVE‘s Yujin on Weibo.
The incident occurred on January 9, KST, when fans caught the company’s official Weibo account reposting a fan post containing deepfake images of Yujin and calling her a “sl*t.” After much fans outrage, Starship Entertainment posted a statement claiming that the update was mistakenly reposted by a staff member while trying to reports malicious posts.
We would like to update on the incident that happened on Starship Entertainment’s Weibo today. The incident happened when our staff was reporting malicious posts, and the post has since been deleted. We would like to sincerely apologize to the artist and fans who may have been affected by this incident. We will work on managing our account better, to prevent similar mistakes from happening again. – Starship Entertainment
The explanation, however, barely satisfied fans, who demanded for more accountability. Responding to the persisting backlash, Starship posted a new statement on January 15, informing fans that the staff member responsible for the debacle was facing “the most stringent disciplinary actions.”
Upon thoroughly reviewing the situation, we have determined that the incident resulted from a failure in our internal protocols. As a corrective measure, the staff member involved has been reassigned from all related responsibilities, and the most stringent disciplinary actions have been taken. Additionally, we are actively enhancing and refining our internal processes to ensure that similar incidents do not recur. – Starship Entertainment
The statement, however, has only fueled further criticism against the label. Netizens opined that the consequences faced by the staff member was inadequate and called out Starship for not treating the matter with the seriousness it deserved.
- “They must’ve gone crazy.”
- “Are they insane?”
- “Huh??Am I reading this right?”
- “Is this something that should be let go with just internal disciplinary action?”
- “These f*ckers.”
- [comment deleted]
- “This is crazy. It wasn’t a simple mistake. It’s disgusting and horrifying that she has to keep working with a person like that.”
Source: Theqoo
