A netizen claiming to be GOT7 member Youngjae's classmate had said in a social media post that the Kpop star had bullied him when they were high school students. Youngjae's agency JYP Entertainment spoke to the netizen and has stated that the accusations against Kpop star were not true.
"We were able to hold a meeting with the individual who made the online post about Youngjae. Although he continued to make the same claims, they were not able to provide any basis for the same," the label stated.
"We notify that we will respond with strict legal action against any degradation, defamation, spread of false rumors, etc involving this incident as well as all future incidents which mock our artists' character without reason," JYP Entertainment warned.
Earlier, an anonymous netizen had claimed that Youngjae had bullied a disabled person when he was a high school student. As the news spread, Youngjae's agency JYP Entertainment started probing the matter and issued a clarification.
JYPE Probe Result
Accordingly, after preliminary probe, JYP Entertainment had come out with the actor's side of the story. In response to the rumors, JYP Entertainment started its own investigation, and said that the news of altercation between classmates was true, but the claims that Youngjae had bullied disabled student isn't.
The netizen who made the bullying claim had stated that Youngjae had not only hit a disabled classmate of his but even stole his possessions and had demanding money. Reacting to the same, the singer's agency stated: "We have discussed this matter with our artist Youngjae, and we heard from him that there was one account of conflict between classmates which went as far as a physical collision, and afterward, they were unable to make up from the incident; however, all of the netizen's other accusations are not true."
The label also said that the netizen's claim that they had contacted JYP Entertainment regarding the issue was not true and confirmed that the agency had not received any emails from the individual so far. Agency also said that it tried contacting the individual from their side, but there was no response. The agency will continue to probe the matter further and assured to take necessary measures if needed.
It all started when an individual stated in a social media post on October 20 that Youngjae had physically assaulted him and extorted money from him during high school. The writer also wrote that he was a student with hearing impairments and intellectually handicapped and attended Mokpo Technical High School with Youngjae.
Seulgi Bullying False Claims
It can be noted that in September, a netizen had claimed that Red Velvet's Seulgi was a school bully and that she had extorted money from her when they were students of School of Performing Arts (SOPA) in Seoul. She even posted a school photograph claiming that it was clicked in 2013 when Seulgi was a student of SOPA. But in fact, the photograph shared was taken by a student in 2019, proving that the claims made by the netizen were false.
The netizen had also posted the photograph of a medicine packet stating that she was forced to take pills for depression after Seulgi started bullying her. But a fact check also showed that the tablets shown in the picture were identified as Erdosteine which is taken to treat bronchitis and had nothing to with treating depression.
