HYBE denies link to cult, reports online commenters to police

BigHit Music reported reported malicious online posts linking it to Dahn World and accusing it of chart rigging to the police.

Boy band BTS [BIGHIT MUSIC]

BigHit Music reported malicious online posts made about the BTS agency — mostly those claiming the company has ties to an alleged religious cult and has attempted to rig music charts in the past — to the police on Thursday.

Korean online users have begun digging up old dirt on the conglomerate, involving its alleged connections to the rumored cult Dahn World and an instance of the company being blackmailed for chart rigging practices, referred to as sajaegi in Korean, back in 2017,

“We emphasize that the allegations regarding sajaegi marketing, stealing other's ideas and relations to Dahn World are false,” the company said on boy band BTS's official Weverse account.

“We have collected multiple false and derogatory posts that have been made against the artists. We have reported posts and accounts that have been deleted.”

HYBE will continue monitoring online communities and will show no leniency regarding any of them, the company said.

“We vow to take all measures to protect our artists' rights.”

Multiple posts were uploaded to various online platforms last weekend demonstrating HYBE's alleged involvement in Dahn World, or Dahn Yoga, a “brain training and meditation company” that some suspect to be a religious cult.

Users accused the conglomerate of using its boy bands BTS and Tomorrow X Together, as well as girl groups GFriend — which disbanded shortly after HYBE bought agency Source Music — NewJeans and ILLIT to promote Dahn World and its beliefs.

Other posts pointed out that HYBE was blackmailed by a person surnamed Lee and three accomplices in 2017 for allegedly using “expedient marketing strategies” while promoting BTS’s album in 2015. Lee was sentenced to a year in prison, and the three others were let off with a fine.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]