HYBE Prevents Its Idol from Speaking about Palestine, According to SEVENTEEN’s DK?

Recently, after NCT’s Taeyong published a story about “boycott”, fans around the world have started to demand their K-pop idols to also speak up about the ongoing humanity crisis in Palestine – where the death toll increases everyday due to attacks from Israel. 

In particular, hashtags calling for idols to speak up have trend on social media, alongside hashtags demeaning company that support Israel like #HYBEDivestfromZionism.

It is known that HYBE America CEO is an outspoken Israel supporter, leading to even stronger opposition towards HYBE and HYBE idols, specifically. 

SEVENTEEN – an artist under HYBE subsidiary Pledis, is no exception, and in a recent livestream session, member DK received various comments regarding Palestine, asking him to speak up regarding the crisis. 

However, many comments also asked the male idol to raise his hand if he cannot discuss the matter, saying, “Dokyeom (full for DK), CARATs in Palestine are now in danger. Are you aware of this and stand with Palestine? If you can’t talk about this, please do ✋🏻 instead.”

As these comments were sent, DK also suddenly raised his hand during the broadcast, leading to beliefs that he indeed cannot talk about the matter and is being “silenced” by his agency.

However, many netizens believe that such speculation is being too much of a reach. In particular, the comment was sent in broken Korean, likely translated poorly with a translating tool. As a result, the part “If you can’t talk about this” would likely be understood as “If not worded properly” to a Korean speaker. 

Additionally, DK’s livestream was removed for a short while, but later published again with some scenes removed. While scenes like a possible spoiler disappear, the part of DK raising his hand was kept intact, causing many to believe that the movement was a mere coincidence. 

At the same time, videos of DK raising his hand (and allegedly confirming that HYBE artists are being “silenced”) are being removed from SNS platforms like X, leading to some netizens still believing that the silencing part is true. 

Source: Krb, X