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On October 7, 2024, Belift Lab (a HYBE subsidiary label) issued a statement refuting claims of NewJeans' Hanni of allegedly hearing a manager tell another idol group to "ignore" her. Earlier, on September 11, NewJeans held a YouTube livestream where she revealed that she allegedly heard a HYBE manager tell another girl group to "ignore" Hanni when she greeted them.
This sparked a controversy, leading to several netizens speculating that it was ILLIT's manager. For the unversed, ILLIT is a rookie girl group of Belift Lab. Hankook Kyungjae reported on September 12, that after HYBE checked the CCTV footage, they found that ILLIT and their manager met the NewJeans member and greeted each other.
In a recent statement, Belift Lab demanded an immediate halt to the "baseless accusations of plagiarism and personnel issues." According to the translation provided by Allkpop, the label said,
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"We strongly demand an immediate halt to the baseless accusations of plagiarism and the unfounded personnel issues aimed at defaming our rookie artists. The ILLIT protocol manager has never made the comment “ignore her” towards any NewJeans members. ILLIT members have also never passed by NewJeans members without greeting them."
The label stated that they demanded an apology from Hanni and ADOR since the CCTV video from May 27, 2024, was reviewed along with Min Hee-jin and her team. It was clarified that neither ILLIT nor their manager said anything demeaning towards Hanni.
However, NewJeans fans were enraged to see Belift Lab demanding an apology. They stated that the NewJeans member never mentioned the group's name hence she shouldn't apologise to Belift Lab. One fan wrote on X,
"The way hanni never mentioned the names of the artists cause the problem is with the manager but oh here is HYBE and Belift name dropping the group. STOP USING YOUR ARTISTS AS SHIELDS!"
NewJeans fans united under the X post shared by Belift Lab and lashed out at the label.
"Why would hanni apologize? she didn’t mention anyone + didn’t even say anything negative about the group she literally said they greeted each other normally THE PROBLEM IS THE RUDE MANAGER. stop setting up iIIit and using them as a scapegoat," an X user wrote.
"Belift is lowkey proving mhj right, this is me simply stating smt I’m witnessing not defending, like why are they using newjeans for promo for the group?Yet yall fans are still hating on hanni and nwjs, when yall should be clocking this company for using ur favs as shields." another user wrote.
"You want HANNI to apologize???? She isn't the one that name dropped, hybe was. All she did was give an example of the mistreatment she faced from the MANAGER not illit themselves. Ask the weirdos at hybe 2 apologize," another user added.
Others also accused the label of "harming" NewJeans' image and allegedly "objectifying" the girl group.
"Instead of releasing videos of any creative process they released a video objectifying newjeans and harming their image and now instead of releasing the cctv to clear their name they're again trying to harm newjeans by calling them liars and demanding an apology this isnt normal," one X user remarked.
"CCTV from the same location, minutes apart, shows us greeting—yet the crucial part is “missing”? Who’s buying that? And don’t insult us with excuses about no sound. Stop lying when the truth is so obvious." another X user added.
"Be honest.. is this your way to promote this group? because there's no way you just posted these after that statement. I’d be so embarrassed omg," one other user stated.
Belift Lab stated ILLIT and its manager greeted NewJeans' Hanni courteously and her allegations are baseless
On October 7, 2024, Belift Lab elaborated that the incident took place on May 27, 2024, and the CCTV footage showed NewJeans' Hanni meeting ILLIT and its manager outside the makeup room. The label asserted that ILLIT bowed at a "90-degree angle to greet NewJeans’ Hanni before entering the styling room."
"The only encounter between the two groups occurred on May 27th, when they were in the same space in the HYBE building for about five minutes. CCTV footage confirmed that ILLIT members bowed at a 90-degree angle to greet NewJeans’ Hanni before entering the styling room."
Belift Lab continued that the footage was reviewed with Min Hee-jin's team on August 14, 2024. However, the security staff clarified that additional recovery of CCTV footage past the specified date was not feasible as the 30-day film retention term had passed. They asserted that no CCTV footage was deleted.
"This footage was reviewed with former CEO Min Heejin’s team on August 14th. After reviewing the footage, Min’s side claimed that the issue occurred after this scene and suggested the existence of additional footage. However, security personnel explained that the 30-day footage retention period had expired, making further retrieval impossible."
Belift Lab stated that even in the National Assembly, new allegations were made against them although they provided CCTV evidence to Min Hee-jin's team. The label stated they suspect hidden agendas underlying the current public debate.
They also asserted that they were quiet for so long to protect the integrity of the protocol manager, who has been falsely accused by Hanni.
In other news, Min Hee-jin was fired as the CEO of ADOR by the board (a HYBE subsidiary) on August 27, 2024. Kim Joo-young was appointed as the new CEO of the label.
