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An alleged HYBE employee reportedly reveals more content from the controversial internal document claiming it to be used for reverse viral marketing. On November 2, 2024, Sports Kyunghyang reported that a netizen Mr. K claiming to be an employee of HYBE shared another internal document titled “Weekly Music Industry Report”, on an online community platform.
Mr. K attached a screen grab of an email sent by Chairman Bang Si-hyuk from July 2023, a photo of the company’s business card, and a document file with over 900 pages in an attempt to prove his employment at the entertainment agency. With the release of the recent alleged internal document, he reportedly accused the agency of executing reverse viral marketing strategies with the help of the weekly reports. He wrote,
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“I held it in for a long time and finally mustered up the courage to post this. I wanted to let people know that, contrary to people’s claims that we didn’t do reverse virality, many of the parts mentioned in this report were actually planned and carried out. The report is full of gossip about not only artists but also people in the industry.”
Alleged HYBE employee accused subsidiary labels’ executive of turning a blind eye to the internal document leak
On November 2, Sports Kyunghyang, a South Korean media outlet, reported that a Netizen named Mr. K revealed another alleged internal document created at HYBE titled Weekly Music Industry Report. Previously, on October 24, Democratic Party representative Min Hyung-bae unveiled an internal document that had been formed by the agency at the National Assembly audit.
The document reportedly evaluated media trends regarding the entertainment sector with slandering and malicious comments about several K-pop artists under HYBE and other labels. The agency was caught up in controversy as it started to receive backlash from the netizens and the general public.
However, during the audit COO Kim Tae-ho stated that the comments in the document were not the official stance of the company but only public opinions and articles obtained from social media platforms.
Meanwhile, according to the report leaked by Mr. K on November 2, 2024, the evaluation was not restricted just to K-pop artists but also allegedly included multiple variety shows, TV producers, broadcasting stations, and more.
For the unversed, HYBE is a multi-label entertainment business group that has subsidiary labels like BIGHIT MUSIC, Source Music, PLEDIS Entertainment, ADOR, KOZ Entertainment, and more under its umbrella. According to Mr. K, the executives of the agency under the conglomerate are allegedly changing their opinions about the document and also pretending to have not seen it before. Notably, he did not mention the names of the labels. He said,
“I also heard that the executives of the relevant labels are organizing their opinions as if they didn’t even look at it. Someone gave instructions with a purpose, and someone faithfully followed those instructions. There are recipients who have seen this report for over two years and still agreed with it and turned a blind eye.”
Previously, on October 29, HYBE CEO Lee Jae-sang issued a formal apology on the official website of HYBE CORPORATION to the fans and the artists who were harmed due to the document. According to Sports Kyunghyang, the agency also dismissed Mr. Kang, the person responsible for the formation of the document, and discontinued the document writing.
