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Bang Si Hyuk's LA meet with AfreecaTV streamers grabs attention as HYBE takes down PICS; Know what happened
Bang Si Hyuk was seen walking down the streets of Baverly Hills with AfreecaTV streamers. As the pictures and videos circulated, HYBE asked to take them down.
HYBE Corporation's chairman Bang Si Hyuk was spotted meeting two AfreecaTV broadcasters in Los Angeles. The pictures and videos of their meeting quickly went viral among Netizens. But soon these posts were taken down by HYBE due to a violation of the privacy of Bang Si Hyuk. This incident was met with mixed reactions from fans especially amid BTS' SUGA's drunk driving electric scooter case and HYBE's ongoing feud with ADOR.
On August 8, a photo of HYBE's chairman Bang Si Hyuk circulated on the internet in which he was spotted with two women as they walked down the streets of Beverly Hills in Los Angeles. This photo was a screenshot from a video on the YouTube channel I Am Walking.
The video was shared on August 7 and contained highlights from Beverly Hills in July. In this highlight video, the chairman could be seen crossing the road with the two women as they share a conversation but their discussion cannot be clearly seen or heard in the video. Another photo quickly made rounds on the internet in which Bang Si Hyuk can be seen taking pictures of the women.
Netizens were quick to notice that one of the two women is the famous influencer Juice Seyeon. She is an AfreecaTV BJ and also recently appeared in the Netflix show The Influencer.
AfreecaTV is a streaming service headquartered in South Korea and was launched in 2005. The platform has been a part of controversies over the years over issues such as offers of sexual favors, abasement of disabled individuals and more.
The Influencer is a reality show in which numerous influencers from South Korea compete with each other to find who has the most influence on social media among them. Jang Geun Suk, Ki Eun Se, KINKY, Heo Seong Beom, Kim Ban Seok and Great Library also joined the show as regular cast members.
Juice Seyeon was one of the contestants on The Influencers.
These photos and videos spread like wildfire on social media and on Korean forums with hundreds of comments by Netizens. But the posts were quickly taken down by HYBE.
These posts were taken down in accordance with Article 44-2 of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. HYBE requested the posts of Bang Si Hyuk with the AfreecaTV BJs to be deleted claiming the invasion of privacy of chairman Bang Si Hyuk.
This incident was met with mixed reactions from Netizens as some pointed out that ADOR's Min Hee Jin's personal chats were leaked to the public by HYBE. Others also mentioned that comments and posts regarding BTS' SUGA's drunk driving electric scooter were not taken down and yet Bang Si Hyuk's pictures were deleted.
Bang Si Hyuk also known as Hitman Bang is a music producer and the chairman of HYBE Corporation. He debuted as a composer early in his life. In JYP Entertainmen’s early days, he used to work for the agency. He ranks 16th in the Forbes list of South Korea’s top 50 richest people.
Popular K-pop groups including BTS, SEVENTEEN, TomorrowXTogether, NewJeans, LE SSERAFIM and solo artists like Zico and Lee Hyun are under HYBE Corporation.
In September 2023, Billboard released a list of top money-makers in the international music scene. Bang Si Hyuk ranked 3rd on the list, behind Spotify co-founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
Billboard stated that Bang Si Hyuk has 31.8% ownership over HYBE’s stakes which are equivalent to 2.54 billion USD. The value of the stocks have shown a huge rise as last year they were valued at 1.7 billion USD. This rise has positively affected his rank towards the top three.
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