On Monday, BLACKPINK’s management agency YG Entertainment released a statement announcing that legal action will be taken against those who leak and distribute private photos of group member Jennie.
The statement revealed that the company requested a police investigation into those responsible for the “indiscriminate rumors, criticism, personal attacks, sexual harassment and violations of personal life sparked by those private photographs.”
YG addressed criticism from online users who accused the company of staying silent on the matter, noting that they have been monitoring the issue and have refrained from making any official announcements to mitigate harm.
They also noted that they have already taken a litany of legal actions, including filing a formal lawsuit against online users in September for damaging the character and reputation of their artists with repeated uploads of unverified claims and malicious posts.
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They continued with a reminder that “the photos [of Jennie] distributed online were made public illegally, without Jennie’s consent. Sharing those images is an act of secondary victimization and can be subject to legal penalty.”
The official statement comes weeks after a string of allegedly leaked photos of Jennie and BTS’ V surfaced online, the legitimacy of which have been widely contested.
The alleged account that initiated the leaks is no longer on Twitter and has purportedly moved to Telegram. Beyond inciting dating rumors between Jennie and V, the account has leaked alleged photos of other idols, including a photo BLACKPINK’s Jisoo posted on her own Instagram hours after the leaker did.
While YG Entertainment and BTS’ label HYBE have not made any official announcements to confirm the dating rumors, HYBE posted a general statement on Weverse about the invasion of privacy of their artists.
“We also have found that a specific poster has been spreading the same ill-intentioned rumor in multiple platforms and filed a criminal complaint against the poster after gathering all of the repetitively uploaded postings,” HYBE wrote. “We would also like to share with you that after an extended police investigation, we were able to identify the suspect and the case has been sent to the prosecutor’s office.”
Featured Image via BLACKPINK
