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The South Korean Ministry of Education turned a public service announcement (PSA) video featuring YouTuber KwakTube into private on September 17, 2024. The video was originally uploaded on September 13 on the Ministry's official channel.
The action resulted from a public backlash in Korea because of a video featuring a former member of April, Lee Na-eun, aka Naeun, which was uploaded to KwakTube's channel on September 16. In this video, he brought up his experience of high school bullying and said,
“When people around me talk about school bullying, I become sensitive because I was a victim myself. So when I heard rumors about you being involved in bullying, I blocked you after seeing the articles."
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He added that as a victim of school bullying, he reacted harshly towards Naeun's school bullying controversy and blocked her immediately. Later, when Naeun was cleared of the charges, he realized he should apologize to her.
"But I later saw that it wasn’t true, so I unblocked you, but you already knew about it. I’ve never talked to you about this directly, but I felt guilty because, as a victim, I may have hurt someone who was falsely accused. I feel bad. As a victim of bullying, I’ve talked about it a lot, but I think I may have also hurt people who were misunderstood.”
The purpose of the PSA on the Ministry of Education's official channel was to urge viewers to “notice, empathize, and report school violence to help prevent it.”
However, due to Naeun discussing her bullying controversy in KwakTube's video, South Korean netizens were outraged. This resulted in the government privatizing the YouTuber's PSA video and removing his personal interview video with Naeun.
KwakTube apologizes to Naeun for misunderstanding her due to her false bullying controversy
In 2020, Naeun was linked to accusations of internal group strife involving Lee Hyun-joo, a former member of April. Naeun and other April members were accused of bullying Hyunjoo. Later, an anonymous person accused Naeun of high school bullying.
However, the charges against her were dropped after it was discovered that the anonymous person had a history of defamation. Nevertheless, April was disbanded in 2020, and after Naeun was proven innocent, she was signed with the agency Namoo Actors.
Meanwhile, in the YouTube video of KwakTube, Naeun told him that she was aware that a lot of her associates and friends blocked her due to the controversy. However, she has overcome her emotions over the years.
“We’ve met a few times since then, and I jokingly mentioned that you blocked me. But honestly, I thought it was something that wouldn’t upset me after some time had passed. It was upsetting that so many people misunderstood me and blocked me, but I wasn’t angry anymore.”
The YouTuber apologized to her, saying he was seven years older than her but was too quick to make a harsh judgment against her. However, South Korean netizens were displeased with the video and criticized them. This resulted in the removal of this video from KwakTube's personal YouTube channel.
KwakTube was recently featured as a special guest on BTS' Jin's variety show, RUN JIN, episodes 4 and 5. The episodes are available on BTS' official YouTube channel, BANGTANTV.
