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Like every other Korean citizen, BTS' RM is also watching the Beijing Winter Olympics, which started off with a bang on February 4, 2022. The Winter Olympic Games is a major multi-sport international event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice.
RM showed his support towards the Korean short-track skating team, to which some alleged Chinese citizens took offense. Soon enough, they stormed BTS' official Instagram account and directed spiteful comments at the global K-pop singer for supporting his country and the skating team.
Note: Since Instagram is blocked in China, it cannot conclusively be said that only Chinese netizens have left these comments. It cannot be ruled out that bots or other factors aren't in play.
BTS' official Instagram gets flooded with hate comments
On February 7, 2022, the short-track ice skating 1000 meter race for the semi-finals took place. On this day, Hwang Dae Heon crossed the finish line and bagged first place in the men’s 1000 meter semi-final group 1 race.
However, the short-track speed skater, who skillfully maintained his lead till the end despite the aggressive offense of the Chinese skaters, failed to advance in the finals as the referee gave him a controversial penalty. The penalty stated that he made an illegal late pass that caused contact.
Nevertheless, BTS’ RM showed his support and posted an Instagram story to cheer on the Korean short-track skater team. The idol’s video showed the skater crossing the finish line. He posted the video with hand-clapping emoticons and the thumbs-up emoticon.
Apparently, RM’s story provoked some Chinese netizens to hurl hate comments towards the K-pop singer. They flooded BTS’ official Instagram account and posted malicious comments that included emojis like vomiting, trash bins, skulls, and more.
These netizens took over the comment section of the group’s official Instagram account since the members have restricted certain features on their individual accounts.
In order to tackle the issue, fans of the K-pop group, known as ARMY, jumped in and buried these angry comments by posting positive comments. They flooded every possible comment section with purple hearts to support RM and the group.
Many Korean netizens are bewildered as to why the hate was directed towards the K-pop group and the country in general. They stated that the South Korean team was the one that faced unfair judgment and was disqualified.
Several netizens gathered on online community platforms to criticize the Chinese short-track skaters for making the semi-finals despite the foul play. They posted videos and pictures showing the aggression of the Chinese athletes who faced no penalties.
South Korea's head of Winter Olympic Delegation to file a lawsuit
According to reports, South Korean athletes will be filing a lawsuit to the International Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) against the unfair judgment of the men’s 1000m short track event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The head of South Korea's Winter Olympic Delegation, Yoon Hong Geun, held a press conference at the Beijing Olympic Main Media Center on February 8, 2022, and stated:
"By making this biased decision, we plan to do our best to make sure that the injustice of our athletes in the international ice skating and sports world does not happen again."
They have also sent protests to the International Skating Union (ISU) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
