Sensitive Let's talk about the time a delusional ex-A.C.E fansite snapped and tried to destroy the group (1 Viewer)

[Juniverse]

I'm actually doing an essay for my A/V class on a topic very similar to this, and it reminded me of this incident. A lot of people don't know this happened, or if they do they may not realize the full extent of what went down. I figured I'd explain it all because I finished my essay but I'm still in the informative writing/research mood.

Content warning: body-shaming, spreading of malicious rumors, death threats, mentions of rape, hacking, depression/anxiety, attempted assault/murder (?)

So this mostly centers on Wow (Kim Sehyoon). He's known to be extremely shy and sensitive. At the time of their debut, he was afraid of the cameras and barely talked. When he was finally opening up more and trusting fans, one of his most dedicated ones turned on him in a horrible way.

This all started on Valentine's day. Wow did a Vlive and at one point he started talking about going to visit themed cafes with a friend of his back when he was around 20. A fansite of his (who'd already been blacklisted by Beat Interactive twice) thought he was talking about an ex-girlfriend and got extremely angry. She started spreading rumors around that he was dating someone as well as body-shaming him and comparing pictures of him then to their previous comeback era. She was basically throwing a large tantrum because Wow was "fat" and wouldn't lose weight when she demanded him to.

While that was happening, a more serious rumor was released by a friend of the fansite who body-shamed Wow (they were working together), first through Twitter then on a Korean forum. Somebody had tracked down Byeongkwan's League of Legends account, and by extension, Wow's League of Legends account. The person who did this accused them of being associated with misogyny, explicit/extremely vulgar nicknames, and a notorious streamer with rape allegations.

A day after that, a different kpop group (N.Cus) had their Twitter hacked. The hacker started retweeting several tweets containing information about Wow and Byeongkwan's League of Legends accounts.

Around this time, another twitter account came out and started to say horrible things about A.C.E, hoping that they and Choices would catch coronavirus. It was later revealed that this account was another fansite of the group. At the same time, yet ANOTHER Twitter account threatened to release A.C.E's private health records and medical information.

Not long after that, a radio program, Naver Now, announced an event with A.C.E listed as guests. It was protested not only by Korean Choices who were turning against A.C.E but by fans of different groups as well. This led to Naver Now reposting the event with A.C.E removed from the lineup.

While all this was going on, mass amounts of hate messages and death threats were being sent to A.C.E's Fancafe. Beat Interactive and A.C.E were dead silent for days at this point.

And the final, perhaps worst incident, happened while the members of A.C.E were in their practice room. Someone had snuck into their schedule and used a vehicle bond (Korean super glue) to create a "terror attack", which is when glue is used to cause parts of a vehicle to malfunction, leading to accidents. Someone tampered with their car in order to make them crash. Luckily it was found out before they entered the vehicle and the person was arrested and fined.

After this, Beat Interactive released a lengthy statement in which they noted that all members of A.C.E were receiving psychiatric counseling and that over the year, Wow had developed depression, anxiety, and a panic disorder, and would be taking a hiatus.

All this started because Wow mentioned that he liked to go to cafes with a female friend many years ago.

I think one of the scariest parts of the whole situation was the fact that there is evidence the fansite was planning this months in advance. I don't understand going to this extent to harm someone, but then again I'm not a complete psycho 🤷‍♀️

 

[Bopper]

I knew about the car incident and that Wow was a target for hate, but not to that extent. Some people really are just sick in the head.

 

[Boyo]

This is terrible. They didn't deserve this, why are people like this?

 

[Chaeee]

I’m lost for words. This is horrific…Poor Wow, poor A.C.E. What goes through people’s sick heads to think its acceptable to mentally and nearly physically hurt others in such a vile way? I hope A.C.E have recovered from this

 

[Juniverse]

I’m lost for words. This is horrific…Poor Wow, poor A.C.E. What goes through people’s sick heads to think its acceptable to mentally and nearly physically hurt others in such a vile way? I hope A.C.E have recovered from this

Thankfully they seem to have

 

[Villains]

i read through all that with my jaw hanging down. i don't even know what to say. how can people be so horrible? horrible isn't even a good enough word to describe them

 

[ChiaraStar169]

i read through all that with my jaw hanging down. i don't even know what to say. how can people be so horrible? horrible isn't even a good enough word to describe them

psychopathic is what they are...

 

[Wingfrost]

I had only heard about the car portion, this entire story is just awful, the fact that people can do things like this and think they are doing nothing wrong…