IVE and LE SSERAFIM’s fansites blacklisted for deepfake cyberbullying against Jang Wonyoung? Here’s what we know

Not too long in the past, a viral publish on X sparked shock and outrage amongst K-pop fans after it accused two prominent fansites: Eudemonic (devoted to IVE’s Leeseo) and Sodapop (devoted to LE SSERAFIM’s Eunchae), of being linked to deepfake crimes against IVE’s Wonyoung. The publish, shared on February 12, 2025, alleged that every fansites had been operated by the equal particular person, who had beforehand been blacklisted by Starship Entertainment.

In step with the viral publish, the fansite grasp in the aid of Eudemonic and Sodapop became amongst these named on this blacklist. While the legitimate checklist supplied by Starship Entertainment easiest incorporated exact names and birthdates without detailed explanations, the publish claimed that the timing strongly advisable a connection to the deepfake scandal that had emerged earlier.

Many fans had been deeply enormously shocked by the probability that a smartly-identified fansite grasp, any person that had seemingly supported idols thru photography and fan events, may perchance bear conducted a job in violating an artist’s privateness in this kind of crucial formulation.

The deepfake controversy keen Wonyoung became fragment of a a lot greater and deeply troubling train that had been unfolding in South Korea closing year in September, identified because the New Nth Room case. This case introduced global attention to a series of Telegram-based chatrooms the attach dispute deepfake enlighten of females, including minors and celebrities, became being circulated for the motive of humiliation and exploitation.

The New Nth Room case first acquired traction when experiences surfaced about broad chatrooms being primitive to unfold non-consensual deepfake pornography, with some rooms even focusing on highschool students by digitally manipulating their photos. The scandal uncovered how frequent the train had change into, as a total bunch of females, many of whom had been fully unaware that their likenesses had been primitive, had been being victimized thru AI-generated enlighten.

As awareness of these crimes unfold, netizens uncovered that a important selection of female K-pop idols had change into targets of deepfake pornography, sparking outrage all over the trade. On September 2, 2024, Starship Entertainment issued an announcement confirming that Wonyoung had been one of the important idols plagued by deepfake crimes.

The company vowed to steal right lawful motion against these to blame and entreated authorities to impose stricter rules against digital crimes of this nature. The assertion, on the replacement hand, did no longer publicly dispute particular indispensable points about these blacklisted, such as their online aliases or their exact offenses.

The resurfacing of these accusations in 2025 has reignited outrage amongst fans, with many stressful extra clarification from Starship Entertainment in relation to the actual people interested. While some fans had been relieved to perceive the company had already blacklisted these implicated, others expressed frustration that the names and indispensable points of offenders had no longer been publicly published.