https://amp.reddit.com/r/seven…_cause_some_to_fall_into/
Original writer: Kwon Soo-bin
Article link: here
Translation: From reddit user xoprestige
In a post that was posted online claiming school violence, an idol was accused of tormenting the poster as they attended school together. Maybe it was because celebrity school violence was an issue at the time, but before the idol accused of such violence had time to check the truth of their claims and issue a statement, people had already branded them as a perpetrator.
Many rounds of such disclosures later, the idol in question paused their activities. Some of their fans began to call for their removal from the group. But as time continued to pass, the claims that were made in these posts started to be proven false, point by point. However, the fact is that the initial accusations, despite the truth coming to light, are stronger in peoples’ minds. Innocent until proven guilty - that is the rule. It claims that the accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty - but when these accusations are posted, the judgment of the press skips the process of examination directly. They become guilty. Most of the school violence claims against celebrities fall into this category.
The most prominent case of this is SEVENTEEN’s Mingyu. A post accusing Mingyu was first posted late February, early in the morning, and deleted just a few hours later. The post was screencapped and shared all over the internet as some began to doubt. Additional updates were never posted, and with the agency releasing a statement refuting the claims, all seemed calm.
A new poster, A, made a claim that Mingyu had harassed a disabled classmate. In the time that it took the agency to respond to these claims, Mingyu had already been labeled as a heinous person, someone guilty of harassing a person with a disability. But the truth that the agency brought to light was different. They stated that they had gotten in contact with the student in question and the student’s mother stated that Mingyu was not the perpetrator. She stated that Mingyu and the student were on good terms, contrary to the post.
Then came poster B, who said that they’d suffered from Mingyu’s words at a cram school they both attended. A careful read of their post revealed that they hadn’t been harassed directly by Mingyu. Despite this, the poster named Mingyu as a perpetrator and bystander. Then came another poster, C. C came with a rebuttal of B’s claims, revealing hospital records with the claims that B had caused them to seek mental health treatment. C is known to have collected evidence from other schoolmates that Mingyu had not been a perpetrator of school violence, and sent them along to the agency.
Through an official statement, the agency stated that B “experienced a series of personal events unrelated to the artist while attending middle school and uploaded the post to make them known to the public.” The situation, then, seemed like it could not be called an instance of school violence. Still, Mingyu "offer[ed] his sincere apologies if the poster, in any way, felt uncomfortable or suffered due to his actions."
Another poster that claimed Mingyu watched as they were physically hit acknowledged that while the incident they suffered happened, Mingyu did not enjoy it nor egg the perpetrators on. They apologized for their own ‘misunderstanding.’ Other graduates who were perceived to have witnessed the event, and even the perpetrator themselves, all stated that they “did not remember” the poster’s claims.
Another commenter, who had said that a friend of theirs had been a classmate of Mingyu’s and had more stories of school violence to tell, stated that they’d “written the words to genuinely support the person, who [they’d] thought was truly a victim of school violence. [They] misapprehended Mingyu without giving him the benefit of the doubt, and mistakenly believed that the story of the victim had been true,” posting a late apology.
The agency toiled hard to verify the facts for the situation, rather than hastily publishing their statement. The blowback following the statements were far greater for earlier statements [from other agencies] that had quickly stated that the claims were untrue. They approached the situation carefully, as someone’s precious time spent as a student could have been painful and crushing. Even though the statements could have been confirmed false internally, they contacted people and the posters involved to go through a verification process.
Though it’s a relief that these truths have nothing to do with him, the victim here is now Mingyu. His image has been tarnished, his promotions with the team have been suspended, and the self-published content schedule slated to begin early March has been postponed. He has also been silent on fan communities. It’s not just the delay to countless schedules - it’s also the countless criticisms and hate comments that have been posted about him, despite the fact that the claims were all proved to be false. The pain and seeds of doubt that still remain cannot be spoken for. Someone used ‘misunderstanding’ to claim school violence, but the person who had the fingers pointed at them fell into the abyss and stayed there, all because of ‘misunderstandings.’
The past must not be buried just because it has passed, but time is needed for the truth to emerge before someone is branded as the perpetrator. It’s not just because of the financial damage tied to all these numerous interests. If things indeed turn out to be false, the scars inflicted to the heart remain for life.
