K-netizens Accuse BBC of Racism in Slanderous Article about SEVENTEEN

On July 11, BBC News had released an article titled “Will K-pop’s AI experiment be successful?”, which falsely alleged that boy group SEVENTEEN utilized AI in their songwriting and music production.

Despite the claim, SEVENTEEN’s agency has denied it, and member Woozi has also directly denied the article through an Instagram story, emphasizing that all of the group’s music is created by human composers.

Despite the response, the writer of the article did not issue an apology. Instead, they went into hiding after making edits, and falsely accused SEVENTEEN of using AI in their “Maestro”MV.

Due to the author’s history of criticizing other K-pop artists, K-netizens have started to question the intentions behind BBC’s article and have even accused it of promoting “r*cist”views. These accusations have been prominently voiced on various Korean online forums, in response to topics related to the article.

I really wonder if this is the best response a major media outlet like the BBC can give. I don’t like the fact that they’re trying to treat this as a mere incident, but I decided not to mention it further on the account just because Pledis has already relayed their position. But Pledis has… https://t.co/3jW96j1yYg pic.twitter.com/7C9YQ4Dtod

— SVTCHIVE (@SEVENTEENCHIVE) July 14, 2024

Here are a few remarks from internet users:

The overall tone of the article feels like it’s criticizing K-pop itself. The author is so obviously r*cist
As anticipated, BBC is still a hotbed of racism.
Racism is a significant issue, as evidenced by the large number of individuals who are unhappy with the success of K-pop.
The level of r*cist tone in that article is astonishing
The r*cist author must be mad that a K-pop artist went to Glastonbury and got a good response

According to theqoo.