On the 13th, a small group identifying as ARMY staged a wreath protest in front of HYBE’s headquarters in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, calling for Suga’s removal from BTS.
The demonstration was triggered by an event that occurred on the 6th of the previous month when Suga was discovered riding an electric scooter while intoxicated. The demonstrators contended that Suga’s behavior was harmful to BTS’s group endeavors and called for his resignation, using slogans such as “Min Yoon-gi, resign,””You’re the one who caused this situation,”and “Step down before facing the media.”They urged Suga to step down from his position.
A fan, who chose to remain anonymous, stated to the press that they were a part of the truck protest. They clarified that the wreaths were sent by individual members of the ARMY and not as a collective effort by the fandom. The protest was organized due to the lack of action taken by HYBE and BigHit Music after releasing a misleading statement about Suga’s incident.
At that moment, there was a clear disparity in responses from ARMY fans around the world. A statement was released by international fans denouncing the efforts of BTS antis who were attempting to damage the group’s image by sending wreaths with the demand to remove one of the members, Suga. The ARMY community distanced themselves from these actions and reaffirmed their unwavering support for all seven members of BTS.
When the issue of Suga’s drunk driving came to light, readers provided wreaths calling for his resignation to be placed in front of HYBE’s headquarters.
Despite the demand for Suga to leave the group, international fans showed their unwavering support through hashtags like #SugaStays, #ARMYdidNotSendWreaths, and #BTSisSeven, causing these trends to dominate X (previously known as Twitter). These fans strongly opposed the idea of Suga’s departure from the group.
Recently, theories have surfaced indicating that the people responsible for the wreath protest and truck demonstration calling for Suga’s resignation may actually be supporters of different groups pretending to be ARMY.
This suspicion was sparked by the discovery of an email from the account responsible for organizing the truck protest, which revealed that the account owner had tagged NCT photos and posts related to former executive Min Hee-jin on the photo platform Pinterest.
Upon being confronted with these accusations, the account operator provided an explanation, stating, “The photos on that account were saved solely for personal use, and I am willing to verify my identity as an ARMY.”However, subsequent investigation revealed that this operator had also saved NCT and NCT 127 content on a related entertainment community site, casting doubt on the sincerity of their explanation.
According to Lee Ji-young, author of “BTS Art Revolution”and a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, individuals calling for a BTS member to leave are not true ARMYs. She made this statement on her X account on the 31st of last month, and it has been revealed that the instigator is actually a fan of another group. Furthermore, she noted that only a few dozen people are involved in this movement.
She announced, “I have been informed that certain antis intend to deceive the media by posing as ARMY. As a result, we are notifying the Korean press with the following information.”
The link to the source is from Daum at https://v.daum.net/v/20240902170002992.
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