SM Entertainment has announced the agency's plans to take legal action against malicious posts and defamation of RIIZE and Seunghan.
On October 17, SM Entertainment released the official statement on social media below, which comes following backlash about Seunghan rejoining RIIZE activities due to his past controversies involving an ex-girlfriend. Though some international fans supported Seunghan's reunion with the group, others expressed their intention to boycott RIIZE, even sending funeral wreaths.
SM Entertainment has since confirmed Seunghan's permanent departure from RIIZE.
Read their latest statement about legal action below.
"Hello, this is SM Entertainment.
We would like to inform you about the progress of our legal actions regarding rights violations related to our artists RIIZE (Shotaro, Eunsuk, Seongchan, Wonbin, Sohee, Anton).
So far, we have been collecting malicious posts and comments that include threats, defamation, and insults against the RIIZE members through reports from fans and our own monitoring. We are focusing on filing lawsuits against individuals who continuously spread false information on specific platforms.
In particular, we would like to inform you that some individuals, who impersonated acquaintances of RIIZE members on Instagram and wrote false information, as well as those whose illegal activities have been confirmed, have been referred to the prosecution with specific charges.
We are responding firmly according to our principles, and we will provide updates on the progress of these cases in the future.
It is clear that fabricating or manipulating unfounded information, creating malicious rumors that defame individuals, as well as spreading such rumors and generating harmful content by editing or synthesizing images of our artists, constitutes illegal activity.
We will continue to take strong actions against those posting malicious content targeting RIIZE on platforms such as Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube, both domestically and internationally. We want to reiterate that we will respond to such illegal activities without any agreements or leniency, so please be cautious to avoid involvement in any unfortunate incidents.
We sincerely thank our fans for their unwavering support and attention towards RIIZE, and we encourage you to actively report any illegal activities related to RIIZE in the future.
