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Starship Ent under fire for reposting IVE's Jang Wonyoung and An Yujin's disturbing deepfakes; agency clarifies
Starship Entertainment recently faced outrage from fans for reposting shocking deepfake content featuring IVE members Jang Wonyoung and An Yujin. What exactly happened?
IVE's agency Starship Entertainment is in hot water for reposting anti-fan-made AI-generated photos of Jang Wonyoung and An Yujin. Fans are particularly enraged as the pictures were originally shared with malicious intent and disturbing captions. Many were shocked to see the group's official agency reposting such content. The company has since clarified what exactly happened.
On January 9, fans suddenly noticed a bizarre post on Starship Entertainment's official Weibo account. The agency reposted deepfakes of Jang Wonyoung and An Yujin, which were created with malicious intent. In particular, the original post contained disturbing slander of the IVE leader's character. The caption read, "Wonyoung good baby, Yujin loves kissing old men."
Fans were shocked to see such concerning posts on Starship Entertainment's feed. Many slammed the agency for further circulating the malicious posts, rather than taking any action against it.
As the situation escalated, the agency issued an official statement on its Weibo account, unveiling what actually happened. "The incident happened when our staff was reporting malicious posts, and the post has since been deleted. We would like to sincerely apologize to the artist and fans who may have been affected by this incident," the agency stated.
They further emphasized that they would keep a close check on managing the account henceforth to prevent such accidents from happening again. However, fans are not satisfied with the agency's apology and demanded further investigation.
Meanwhile, the distribution of such deepfake content is becoming an alarming situation in the K-pop industry. Previously, BLACKPINK, BABYMONSTER, (G)I-DLE, TWICE, and even Single's Inferno's Dex have fallen victims to such malicious AI-generated content. Their agencies announced strict legal actions, including expensive lawsuits.
On the work front, IVE is currently gearing up for their highly-anticipated 2025 comeback. They will release their third EP EMPATHY on February 3. It will mark their first album release since their 2nd EP SWITCH arrived in April 2024.
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