China’s Weibo has banned a fan club of K-pop band BTS from posting for 60 days, saying that it had raised funds illegally, days after photographs of a customized airplane funded by the fan club were posted online.
The fan club account, which had more than 1.1 million followers on the social media platform, focused on BTS member Jimin.
The restrictions imposed on the account came amid China’s campaign to clean up the entertainment industry and clamp down on “irrational behavior” exhibited by fans.
Photo: AP
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has called for a “national rejuvenation,” with tighter Chinese Communist Party control of business, education, culture and religion.
The party has since reduced children’s access to online games and is trying to discourage what it sees as unhealthy attention toward celebrities.
Last week, the government banned effeminate men on TV and banned idol development shows for their “low moral values” that could be a bad influence on young people.
The BTS fan account was banned from posting on Weibo after images circulated last week of a customized airplane from Jeju Air with images of Jimin on it. The customized airplane was part of the club’s plans to celebrate his 26th birthday next month.
The stunt drew swift criticism online for its excess.
Following the backlash, the account issued a statement last week on its feed urging fans to be “rational” when chasing celebrities for a “harmonious and healthy Internet environment.”
Weibo said in a statement on Sunday that the group has been banned from posting for 60 days, after it was found to have raised funds illegally.
“Weibo firmly opposes such irrational star-chasing behavior and will deal with it seriously,” the statement said.
The fan club began raising money in April to prepare for the birthday celebrations, the Global Times reported, with more than 1 million yuan (US$155,000) raised in the first three minutes of the fundraising activity and 2.3 million yuan in the first hour.
The club also planned to run advertisements celebrating Jimin’s birthday in newspapers such as the New York Times.
It is not uncommon for K-pop fans worldwide to celebrate the birthdays of their favorite celebrities by taking out newspaper or billboard advertisements, or customizing public transport vehicles with images of their idols.
Many fans also fundraise to donate to charitable causes, such as funding education for the underprivileged or sponsoring wild animals in stars’ names, as part of such celebrations.
In a separate statement on Sunday, Weibo said that it had banned 21 other fan accounts for 30 days for posting “irrational star-chasing” content.
The banned fan accounts were mostly centered around K-pop celebrities, such as members of boy bands NCT and EXO, and girl group Blackpink.
Chinese singer-actor Lu Han (鹿唅), a former member of K-pop group EXO, on Sunday said that he would cut ties with Swiss luxury watch brand Audemars Piguet after a video circulated online last week that showed its CEO referring to Taiwan as an “ultra-modern, high-tech country.”
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS