"It's high time you all boycott" — Netizens react as Scooter Braun releases his retirement statement, expresses his priority as HYBE America's CEO

On June 17, Scooter Braun made an Instagram post announcing his retirement as a music manager for Western artists after 23 years of service in the role. He added that he would shift his focus entirely on his role as HYBE America's CEO.

When the news landed on the internet, netizens were happy about the same. This repulsive and angered reaction from netizens was due to the boycott they've been carrying for the past few months.

In light of the Israel and Palestine conflict, HYBE, along with the other three big K-pop agencies, JYP, SM, and YG Entertainment, is actively boycotted by K-pop fans. This was due to the alleged belief that some of their collaborations and projects might hold zionist ties.

Netizens have specifically been boycotting and trying to remove Scooter Braun from his powerful position as a HYBE executive due to beliefs that he holds zionist allegedly Israel-supporting ideals. One X user wrote:

Additionally, they were upset to see him name-dropping several HYBE artists, such as BTS, ILLIT, TXT, LE SSERAFIM, NewJeans, etc., and also alluding to his close relationship with HYBE's Chairman, Bang Si-hyuk. Here's how fans reacted:

"He is literally just spitting on our efforts and mocking us lmfao. anti boycotters who have been saying that he "isn't that involved" WELL HERE IS YOUR PROOF HE EXPLICITLY IS! it isn't too late to join the boycott keep pushing," an X user wrote.

"Soooo are yall ready to boycott now? bc this should make everyone mad," one person commented.

"Scooter braun is declaring that he is completely a part of hybe and he’s gonna be more loud about it going forward. if this doesn’t make you move to boycott, be ready to face the consequences and i promise they won’t be good. both for you and your artists." another X user reacted.

Netizens have also been urging people to start boycotting HYBE and Scooter Braun now that he's explicitly expressed his relationship with HYBE artists.

"Scooter braun thinking he has the right to list txt as a new group as if they weren’t already established and thriving before Hybe was even a thing…," a netizen commented.

"I don't understand what more reasons could y'all even need to boycott HYBE. Scooter himself keeps giving us reasons," an X user wrote.

"I've never ever hated a man more than I hate him. BTS's success is because of them and them only. this is not a we/us situation," another X user commented.

Braun managed many artists, including Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, etc.

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Scooter Braun announces retirement and emphasizes the focus on his role as HYBE America's CEO

In the retirement statement, Scooter Braun expressed his gratitude to all the artists he managed in the last 23 years. He stated that moving forward, he would concentrate strictly on the role of HYBE America's CEO.

Additionally, he talked about the commercial success of JK's solo career, the other BTS members, and the upcoming HYBE groups. However, netizens' reaction to this has been repulsive due to certain alleged speculations. In the past few months, Scooter Braun's alleged zionist ideals were highlighted by netizens, and he was consistently criticized for the same.

An interview of him talking about his stance as a pro-Israeli along with his active collaborations with other Western artists who were speculated to be Israel supporters were the main causes behind the rejection netizens felt towards him.

Therefore, netizens have been holding online campaigns, spam-mailing HYBE, and sending protest trucks to express their opposition to Scooter's involvement with HYBE and its artists.

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As a result, fans have been seriously undertaking several possible measures to prevent Scooter's advancement into the schedules and projects of the HYBE artist.