Kim Seon-ho’s problematic fandom: from spreading false rumors to abusing the victim with malicious comments
Kim Seon-ho’s fandom is also causing as much trouble as their actor himself did.
Recently, Kim Seon-ho dropped out of the entertainment program be was being a cast member and his upcoming movies due to the controversy related to his ‘private life’. Since then, Kim Seon-ho‘s fans are reportedly causing damage to the actor’s ex-girlfriend (A) and his fellow celebrities.
Earlier on October 17th, A uploaded a disclosure on an online community revealing that a rising actor K forced her to have an abortion under the pretense of marriage. Based on the details mentioned about actor K, Internet users immediately found out K was actually Kim Seon-ho. After a long silence, Kim Seon-ho admitted his faults and made an apology through his agency, Salt Entertainment, on October 20th. As a result, the actor dropped out of KBS2TV’s show “2 Days 1 Night Season 4”, in which he was a regular member.
Kim Seon-ho did the wrong thing, but his fans poured their anger out into the wrong place. A, who has suffered from secondary abuse, such as personal information revealed, false rumors, and malicious comments, after her disclosure, announced through her representative law firm, “Currently, A’s personal information has been disclosed and spread recklessly. Since false facts related to A’s personal information were spread, she has constantly received criticism and threats. A has been complaining about her severe mental pain, so we decided to take all possible legal measures against malicious content related to A, including reports, online posts, comments, etc.”
Some fans of Kim Seon-ho were caught secretly planning to spread false rumors and manipulate the public opinion against A. On October 21st, a netizen posted a screenshot of the Kakaotalk group chat where Kim Seon-ho’s fans gathered on an Internet community. In the group chat, a fan was talking about “An influencer whose relative is a famous actor. Her family and Kim Seon-ho’s already met each other. They were dating on the premise of marriage. His ex is rich enough to live alone in an 8.5-billion-won apartment, but his current girlfriend is much wealthier than the ex. Kim Seon-ho disappeared for 3 days to soothe his current girlfriend”. Then, members of this group chat started to ask each other to spread this content to several other SNS sites and online communities.
In response to the plan, a fan asked, “Is it okay to spread false information?”, and the fan who shared the photo replied, “It’s more important to change the public opinion for now”. After that, a member of that chat room exposed Kim Seon-ho‘s fans’ plan of spreading rumors and manipulating public opinion. Therefore, netizens have strongly criticized this behavior of causing secondary abuse to the victim.
In addition, some fans are protesting the editing of Kim Seon-ho out of “2 Days 1 Night” even though the production and cast are in trouble as the actor dropped out ahead of the 100th special. When Kim Seon-ho was edited out of the October 24 episode of “2 Days 1 Night” season 4, comments were posted on the program’s official website, saying, “I object to Kim Seon-ho’s drop-off,” “Honestly, isn’t it a personal matter?” After A’s revelation, some fans even went to the SNS of the cast and made cross-the-line demands to defend Kim Seon-ho.
People might say love paralyzes reason. Objective facts are not accepted and judgments about right and wrong are also put on hold. To those fans, the person on the wrong is not Kim Seon-ho but A, who revealed his personal history, and the entertainment programs and movies that coolly cut Kim Seon-ho off.
