Ahead Of SM Artists’ Privacy Breach, SM Entertainment Taking Severe Legal Actions Towards Sasaengs
Sasaengs, the name given to 'fans' that have no regard for artists' safety or privacy, have always been a bane in the entertainment industry of South Korea. Thus, a member of the 'Big 3' agencies has had their fill and has announced strict legal actions.
Just recently, SM Entertainment announced that they will be strictly moving legally against sasaengs who have been targeting their artists. As of writing this article, yesterday on the 16th of July, SM Entertainment announced:
"This is SM Entertainment.
As there have been continuous illegal actions, which include severe invasion of privacy and defamation of SM artists, this is the agency's statement regarding the issue.
We have been making strong legal action against acts of defamation or insult, such as malicious slander and writing or spreading malicious rumors, about our artists online on portal websites, social media, online communities, and the like, by filing criminal complaints through the cooperation of fans and internal monitoring.
SM Entertainment will also no longer overlook excessive invasion of our artists' privacy from sasaengs and plan on taking very strict actions.
The reckless stalking of sasaengs, such as using sasaeng taxis to continuously follow our artists for a long time or follow artists to and from their military service sites, finding out their locations of residence and trespassing indoors or the parking lot, or
sending packages in a way that the sender cannot be identified, has been creating immense mental and physical harm to not only the artists but also those around them such as their families, acquaintances, and neighbors.
These actions are not affectionate expressions of fans but are illegal acts that invade privacy and are definite criminal acts. A prison sentence can also be received as criminal punishment now following the recently enacted Act on Punishment, etc. of Stalking Crimes.
In our interests to protect SM's artists, we will let go of the lenient attitude we have held towards sasaengs until now and will take firm and strict legal action without leniency or settlement. We have already secured a considerable amount of related evidence including CCTV and car black box footage, photos and videos that have been taken, phone call records, postal mail, emails, and the like.
We will continue to secure more related evidence, and we will not only file criminal complaints but also take all possible civil and criminal action such as filing claims for psychological and monetary damages.
We hope sasaengs will immediately stop their actions pertaining to the violation of privacy towards artists and be more cautious to not disadvantage themselves as a result of their misconduct."
With this, hopefully, sasaengs will be more understanding and sensitive towards the K-pop idols and artists' privacy and health. They are human, after all.