GFRIEND's votes for the upcoming 30th High1 Seoul Music Awards, also simply known as the Seoul Music Awards, are suspected to be manipulated against the girl group.
On Wednesday, Dec. 16, there was a widespread claim that the number of votes cast for GFRIEND for the Seoul Music Awards was being manipulated against them. Numerous people started screenshots and video captures of the votes. People noted that when you refresh, each idol groups' votes appear to grow naturally. GFRIEND's votes, on the other hand, grows by the same amount.
Users who participated in the voting for the Legend Rookie Prize released videos and screen captures of the votes, showing that GFRIEND's votes were possibly being manipulated to increase by tens of thousands of votes in just a few minutes. People also noticed their dramatic rice in the Main Category. Soon, the girl group ranked at number three in the latter mentioned category.
ALSO READ : GFRIEND Sits Down for a 'GRAMMY Museum' Interview + Becomes First K-Pop Girl Group to be Invited
While many people wondered if GFRIEND's ranks were actually being manipulated to benefit them, fans have spoken up to defend the group. Many people have noted that the reason GFRIEND was able to rise above the ranks so quickly is because of the retweeting counts.
Following speculations on GFRIEND's rigged votes, the Seoul Music Awards released a statement on the matter. They announced that they have been monitoring the votes and noticed fake accounts voting for GFRIEND. Because of that, all identified abnormal votes were deleted on Thursday, Dec. 17. Additionally, all accounts used for the said voting have been forced to withdraw.
Read their statement here:
"The SMA Committee has been monitoring the voting records ever since voting was opened.
Today, we detected some abnormal voting behavior made for a specific artist.
As a result of the monitoring in each category between Dec. 14 and Dec. 15, we were able to identify a situation in which an illegal software was used to make 6,553 fake accounts, including ******-*****eex, which was done to create voting tickets to be able to participate in the voting.
The details are as follows:
- Time of occurrence: After 21:21 on Dec. 13
- Artist: G******
- Number of votes to be deleted: 116,540 votes for the Main, 71,380 votes for the Legend Rookies Prize
The above issue is obviously a rate voting case. All identified quantities of abnormal votes will be deleted on Dec. 17, 2020, at 12:30 AM. All accounts used for abnormal voting will be forced to withdraw.
Additionally, we have also inspected all the other award categories and did not find any extra illegal voting cases.
There will be legal action in the case of vote-rigging, such as using macros and illegal software.
The Seoul Music Awards are making every effort to ensure that there will be no harm to the fairness of the vote.
To maintain a clean voting culture without compromising the message of each award for the idols, please cooperate and participate in SMA.
Thank you.
Seoul Music Awards Committee."
Despite release a statement, many were nonetheless unimpressed. People noted that in last year's Seoul Music Awards, GFRIEND was set to receive a Bonsang at the main category after bagging first place in the votes among girl groups, but ultimately snubbed the award shows and was never awarded. Fans quickly discovered the votes at the time were manipulated against GFRIEND.
Now that the girl group was in third place for this year's award ceremony, people suspect that the Seoul Music Awards are manipulating the votes to prevent GFRIEND from winning.
People also noted that though it alluded that GFRIEND suddenly rose by over 60,000 votes, they had actually only gained 53,539 votes at the time. This means that over 6,500 votes were from legitimate votes, but were deleted regardless.
As of press time, the Seoul Music Awards has not commented further.
For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz.
KpopStarz owns this article.
Written by Alexa Lewis
