SM Entertainment has stepped up its efforts to protect its artists.
On October 2, SM Entertainment released an official statement, providing an update on ongoing legal action against malicious posts and comments. The company also reaffirmed its strong commitment to safeguarding the rights and interests of its artists.
Hello, this is SM Entertainment.
We would like to provide an update on the legal actions taken against the spread of malicious posts and comments involving our artists, including the dissemination of false information, defamation, sexual harassment, deepfakes, personal attacks, insults, and invasion of privacy.
In addition to the lawsuits already in progress, we have thoroughly reviewed hundreds of thousands of posts and attached materials collected through our own ongoing monitoring efforts and valuable reports submitted by fans via ‘KWANGYA 119’. Based on this review, we have filed complaints with investigative authorities for over 200 confirmed criminal cases as of September 30, 2025, in cooperation with Shin & Kim LLC.
The process of reviewing posts for lawsuits, along with subsequent investigations, trials, and the delivery of results, can take a considerable amount of time depending on the case. During the investigation stage, it is often difficult to share specific details in real-time, and even when such information becomes available, we ask for your understanding that we may not be able to disclose it in detail to avoid interfering with the investigations. However, we will provide regular or irregular updates on each case as soon as it is appropriate to do so.
Furthermore, we prioritize protecting the rights and interests of our artists, including Kangta, BoA, TVXQ, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, SHINee, EXO, Red Velvet, NCT 127, NCT DREAM, WayV, aespa, RIIZE, NCT WISH, Hearts2Hearts, Lucas, and Seunghan. We continue to collect evidence from domestic and international platforms where malicious posts and comments are being spread, such as Naver, Daum Cafes, Nate Pann, TheQoo, Instiz, MLB Park, X (formerly Twitter), DC Inside, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, FM Korea, and others. For all additional incidents that clearly constitute illegal activities causing significant physical and emotional harm to our artists, we will take strong civil and criminal legal action without any leniency or settlement. We urge everyone to avoid becoming involved in such inappropriate behavior.
We sincerely thank our fans for their invaluable reports, and we will continue to do our utmost to protect the rights and interests of our artists in all aspects. We ask for your continued interest and cooperation.
Thank you.