The members of ILLIT are garnering flak after their X (formerly Twitter) account followed and then unfollowed fan accounts.
On May 20, 2024, a post titled "The account that ILLIT's members' accounts followed by accident then unfollowed" was uploaded to one of the most popular South Korean online community forums, TheQoo.
In the post, the original poster shared tweets from an international ILLIT fan. In one of their tweets, they shared that ILLIT's verified X account, which is used by the members to share selfies and day-to-day photos of themselves, followed her.
After revealing that they were followed by the girl group, the fan sent a loving message to the ILLIT members. They stated that ILLIT fans will always be by the members' (Yunah, Minju, Moka, Wonhee, and Iroha) side. The fan also tells the members that they are always with them and that they are pretty, talented, funny, and kind.
This sparked backlash, as it was revealed that in past tweets, they had accused NewJeans of plagiarizing other groups. The fan has since put her X account on private.
In another post, it was revealed that ILLIT followed not one, but three fan accounts.
One of them is a Korean fan who is a fan of Moka, one of ILLIT's Japanese members.
Another account that they followed is a Yunah fan account. The fan is reportedly based in Japan.
Soon after it was revealed that ILLIT followed these accounts, they quickly unfollowed them.
However, Korean netizens were quick to notice the interaction. Many slammed the girls for being shady, as the accounts had supposedly tweeted badly about NewJeans on their account. As it is the account the members supposedly have access to, they believe the members are showing their true colors by following such fans.
Some comments read,
- "I wonder what kind of explanation they will have for this. Are they gonna make up an excuse that a staff member accidentally did this?"
- "This is both f*cking sad and funny. They were trying to get people's sympathy by reporting hate comments, but are acting like NewJeans's antis behind people's backs."
- "Even the members are like this... Everyone in HYBE is the same."
- "Even if you were writing fiction, you'd never imagine something like this happening."
- "The culprit has to be one of the Japanese members."
- "These young kids are scary..."
- "Like company, like members."
- "Go practice singing instead."
- "Has there been any idol in history that followed a hate account? Isn't this legendary? I have seen idols accidentally liking Instagram posts, but this is something else."
- "They can't sing, and even their personality is like this..."
As of writing, BELIFT Lab (ILLIT's agency) has not responded to the backlash.
What do you think of the situation? Tell us in the comments below!
KpopStarz Owns This
Written by Alexa Lopez
