For the past month, I haven’t listened to my favorite artist’s music, unfollowed them on all social media platforms, refrained from interacting with any of their content, or purchased any kind of merchandise from them. Usually, boycotting something to this extent is associated with a negative action of the ones being boycotted. But in my case, it’s the opposite, it’s about showing the company that they need to protect themselves better against the saesangs (anti-fans) and rumors/hate online. Additionally, I want SM to take accountability for not protecting RIIZE from all this hate. 

This all started back in September of 2023. K-pop boy group RIIZE had just debuted with their new song ‘Get A Guitar.’ The group included seven members: Shotaro, Eunseok, Sungchan, Wonbin, Seunghan, Sohee, and Anton. Malicious tweets including rumors about certain members started spreading on social media platforms. While at first, the hate was directed towards Wonbin, they then came for Sohee.  But the member that ended up receiving most of the backlash was Seunghan.

This continued until November when Seunghan’s pre-debut photos were leaked by an  X(or Twitter) user. The images included him with his ex-girlfriend and one of him smoking. While some Korean fans started to send him hate online, global fans were outraged that his privacy could be leaked like this. They argued online that simple photos of him having a life before he was an idol should not be such an issue. Because of these photos, RIIZE’s company, SM Entertainment, announced on November 22nd that Seunghan would be going on an indefinite hiatus. On the social media platform Weverse, Seunghan posted a hand-written apology stating that he would reflect on his actions and how sorry he was to the fans for being a problematic idol. Global fans became outraged again that the company instead of taking action forced their artist to write an apology for his privacy being leaked. 

This would be the last time we heard from Seunghan, or SM Entertainment about him, and he has been on hiatus for around 11 months. For fans like me who support Seunghan, this was a very upsetting time as SM Entertainment kept us in the dark about his activities in the group. There were two times throughout his hiatus that he was spotted out in public by fans but besides that, it was radio silence. During this time RIIZE continued to promote and released a new single, their first mini album, and even did a worldwide fan-con (a mix between a concert and live variety show) tour. During all of this, global BRIIZE (RIIZE’s official fandom name) began to adopt the new phrase, ‘RIIZE is seven’ all over the internet.

First, during the fan-con tour, OT7 BRIIZE (one true seven, meaning you support all seven members) would make their voices clear by chanting ‘RIIZE is seven’ at various points throughout the fan-con. There was also a short boycott when SM Entertainment announced a full-length version of RIIZE’s pre-debut single, ‘Siren,’ and Seunghan’s part was re-recorded by another member. At some points, it felt hopeless to assume that he was going to rejoin the group, but on October 10th of this year, SM released a statement titled ‘to all the BRIIZE who love RIIZE’ announcing Seunghan’s return to RIIZE. This came as a shock, especially since just an hour before the statement, a Korean news site ‘Naver’ released and then quickly deleted an article stating that Seunghan had left the group. 

For fans who had supported him throughout his whole hiatus, it felt like we had just won the lottery. BRIIZE and even non-RIIZE K-pop fans rejoiced on social media that he had returned and that RIIZE would finally be seven again. But this all came to a crashing end as the small minority of OT6 BRIIZE had started posting massive amounts of hate all over social media criticizing his return. Additionally, just a day after his return was announced they sent 1000 funeral wreaths to the front of SM Entertainment. Banners on the wreaths said things like ‘RIIZE is always 6’ or ‘You aren’t dead yet but you might as well be.’ These harsh words gained massive attention from the Korean public wondering what cruel thing Seunghan did.

To try and combat this hate, member Wonbin posted a letter on Weverse telling fans that it was the members who wanted him to rejoin and to try and understand this situation. He ended the letter by saying that he loves BRIIZE and he hopes that they will continue to be fans in the future. This was a very bold move that was sadly met with the OT6 BRIIZE claiming that he was forced to write this and that he needed to get some rest because this wasn’t him (If you didn’t think these fans were crazy before I bet you think they are now!). Unfortunately, the next day on October 13th, SM Entertainment released another statement saying that Seunghan decided to leave RIIZE. Seunghan also again posted another handwritten letter telling BRIIZE that he didn’t want to ruin the relationship between the group and the fans so that’s why he chose to leave. However, the truth is that Seunghan was bullied out of RIIZE. Even after Seunghan left the group SM has failed to protect Seunghan and the other members who have faced backlash for defending their friend. 

Because of everything that’s happened, many other K-pop fans and I have decided to boycott RIIZE for the time being. Besides still wanting Seunghan to rejoin the group, it’s more about wanting SM to take accountability for not protecting RIIZE from all this hate.