*Update: there's a link at the end of the post from a live stream Jimin and Jungkook did recently. It's a must see that explains their position on fans coming to the airport.
Given recent news on stalkers I thought I would revisit this topic and go more in depth with it and try to find some solutions or better ways to keep BTS safe from sasaengs. It seems like things are escalating since they have gotten out of the military and we knew that things would happen due to hate campaigns and coordinated attacks from antis. I still don't think all the stuff with that woman who shall not be named is over and I can still sense her mark on some things. We are the biggest fandom in the world though and there has to be a way to combat this. We need to be more vigilant in our reporting (to Hybe) and we need to be more willing to block and stop following these big accounts putting them in danger and stalking them for likes and follows.
Jungkook, V, and RM have been the subjects of stalkers or have had their information leaked that I know of. I haven't heard of the other members having any issues with stalkers thank goodness but all of them have deal with sasaengs behavior at some point. RM has had his travel schedules leaked and had people book train accommodations next to him. The leaker was fired. I'm not sure if charges were filed. V had a stalker who is being sued who tried to get him to sign a marriage agreement and got into an elevator with him. She was arrested eventually. Jungkook has had the worst of it it seems. He has had stalkers outside of his home leaving letters in the letter slot and photographing themselves in front of his home. He also had a sasaeng call his hotel room while he was live streaming once and had someone sending him food orders. Most recently, the day he got out of the military, there was a stalker who tried to break into his home. She was caught and arrested then released. There's also an account on the Threads BTS ARMY Blocklist that claims to have been hacking his iCloud that connects to his iPhone. I suspect that this person is lying for clout but to lie about it is just as bad in my opinion and she has been reported to Hybe. We as fans need to do our due diligence in getting the word out that this behavior is unacceptable and people need to be punished properly for such behavior.
There was an incident recently when Jin's brother asked that a video or photo of Jin and his father eating at a restaurant be taken down and it continued to be shared after the request. How people sit there and call themselves ARMY and have no clue what the title entails is crazy to me. If a family member says to remove a pic or video, you take it down immediately and apologize. It shouldn't be up anyway and ARMY also asked for it to be taken down. Why are you even sharing people's parents? On private time at that and blurred or not if they didn't share it it should NOT be shared period. The fact that his brother had to tell the stalkers to remove it is so sad to me. The parents, other family, and friends are not a part of the group and most are not famous. They have other jobs and families of their own and we shouldn't be following their accounts or posting pics that they posted or even sharing them when they are with the members of BTS unless the guys share it. We live in a world where people's family and friends become targets to psychos trying to get close to the celebrity and they don't need to be exposed in such ways.
There are a lot of forms of stalking and in my opinion it starts small and can build. It's of course not a problem only with BTS but other groups and celebrities as well. It seems like people are getting bolder and this isn't fan behavior but sasaeng behavior. I've seen news involving other artists in Kpop lately and it's sad and wild what they go through. From what I have noticed since I started stanning BTS is that there are different levels of this and they are all potentially dangerous and people who are fans contribute to it in some way shape or form and we all have a responsibility to try to stop it whenever we see it.
Unauthorized Photos and Airport Mobbing
This feels like deja vu because I have written about this on this blog before. Fans need to stop going to the airport to try to take pictures and video and shoot their shot with their faves. It's stalker behavior to obtain the information that a celebrity is travelling and go to the airport to try to meet them or catch a glimpse. I don't get why the press or photographers are there either. Unless they are covering someone's long absence from the spotlight or someone's return from some major event like the Olympics or World Cup it seems pointless or like a money grab for exclusive photos. I don't get the culture of idols wearing designer brands to the airport, supposedly as directed by the designer they are ambassadors for, and being photographed by the press traveling in the outfit. I don't even know if that's true, but it is an excuse fans give when we say that not even the press should be there. The designers get plenty of time to have the artist photographed in whatever they want when they run their campaigns either in print or through social media videos and commercials as well as all the attention they get from fashion week events. I don't understand why airport fashion is a thing as far as paparazzi swarming the airport. Even so, that should have nothing at all to do with fans being there. Do they even do this in other countries because I didn't know about this till I got into BTS? I don't think it's a thing in the US for paparazzi and brands to stage airport travel shoots.
The press aren't the only ones there to take pics of airport fashion but there are also fan site stalkers trying to get photos of their faves and they create more crowding with their cameras and equipment. If you've seen the K-drama "Her Private Life" you know what I mean. The thing I found cringe about the female lead in the show was that she was a sasaeng fan site photographer. She went to the airport to stalk her bias and she may have even been a solo because there was never any other mention of her stanning the whole group but I digress. She runs a website where she takes these airport photos and uploads them to her fan site online. In reality these fan sites sell the photos for profit or they hold galleries where they display the photos and charge an admission fee. They are making money off of unauthorized photos and unauthorized use of the likeness of the artists (not having permission for the use of the photos from the company or permission for their pop up photo galleries).
Add loud obnoxious fans to the scene at the airport with their phones out recording, screaming, and chasing celebrities and you have a circus of a mess. There are also your everyday travelers and airport staff and security trying to go about their day and do their jobs in the midst of all of this. They are the only ones who should be there and they are being inconvenienced. ARMYs started the Purple Ribbon Project in the past to minimize the chaos, but it just wasn't able to keep going and people have been asking for it to come back. It shouldn't be brought back because there is the issue that it would add too many new people to the mix who may not have the best intentions. The goal is also to not have people come to the airport at all unless they are travelers and not fans trying to get a pic of their faves so bringing it back would be counterproductive and cause just as much chaos. People would sign up to be front line ribbon holders just to get to go and try to be close to the members. The original creators of it have said that they wouldn't bring it back.
Whatever your stance is on the press being there to photograph them in head to toe Celine or Gucci or whatever, these designers can choose another way to get their ambassador photos without putting people in danger. That's exactly what's happening whether they admit it or not. The idol worship culture brings people to the airport to catch a glimpse of their faves and get footage of them recorded on their own phones and cameras and this is a problem that is only going to get worse if it isn't addressed. It seems like only a handful of us see the big picture. When we bring it up people argue that it's legal and official because it's Dispatch or whatever K-media site and how quickly ARMY forgets that some of these same sites dragged and continue to drag Yoongi through the mud for no reason and you support them every time you share a pic from the airport. You promote the culture that smothers them when they travel. I won't be giving engagement to it at all going forward. Some will be blocked, some muted, and maybe if more people focused on official Hybe Big Hit photos or ones the members post then this would get better.
Whenever BTS travels they post pics on Instagram or Weverse, often from the plane, to let us know they are travelling. If it is an official schedule they let us know and they don't have to do that but they choose to. Personal schedules they usually don't and that's none of our business anyway and we should respect that as fans.
Someone also tried to talk their way around it by lying saying that it hurts their brand reputation to not share the pictures. No, it does not. The brand reputation is based on a lot of factors and ignoring some airport photos won't ruin that. It came from Tae solos of course so truth isn't their best quality anyway. The best way to support the brand reputation of the members is to like, comment, and share video and pictures from the brands and official magazine sites that post them. If you see a post on Threads from the brands or fashion magazines, go to Instagram and find the original and like, comment, and share to make sure it does numbers and let the brands know we see and approve. If you find one and share it on Threads then add the Instagram link as well to make it easier to get to.
Stalker Influencers
Stalker Influencers are a whole other issue I have noticed lately. I don't do influencer culture and I don't ever follow someone just because they have a lot of followers so this is new to me to explore. I learned how fake influencers are when I used to watch family vloggers on YouTube years ago. I stopped when I realized it is all about money to these people. Family vloggers are a whole other can of worms that's off topic here but the idea is the same. They use their kids to make money and stalker influencers use their proximity or perceived proximity to the members to do the same.
What are stalker influencers? Stalker influencers are the big accounts that are monetized that post content that should not be posted. They follow celebrities to get a scoop or inside information so they can leak it or they take pictures or video in places they shouldn't have access to, ex: finding out where they are shooting a show or a video and getting onto set or near enough to get footage to leak or showing up at a hotel or restaurant and getting inside and taking video or pictures and posting them.
There was a woman who stalked Jungkook at his boxing class and recorded him through the window. She signed up for classes with the same boxing coach and took pics of her training with that coach. She had a large following and she had a Patreon account (account used by content creators to charge subscriptions for subscriber exclusive content). She talked about JK on her main Instagram and she posted some pics and video but you had to join her Patreon and pay money to get the exclusives where she would post the full videos and pictures. This is absolutely disgusting and when you realize these people are not only getting paid every time a post gets engagement, good or bad, then they get paid from what they post on other platforms where they can charge for memberships and subscriptions and potentially have more secrecy with what they post. Jungkook mentioned the situation in a live stream. He can't even be safe exercising because these people cross the line.
There was another stalker influencer we put on the blocklist recently who was outside Hybe the day when RM and V were discharged from the military as well as the day JK and Jimin were released. She has a popular Instagram and TIkTok account. I blocked her so I don't remember her name now. She started as a travel blogger and decided to grift off of the whole Hallyu movement by moving to South Korea as a white European and documenting her experience. She's what they like to call a "digital nomad" who shows how they make a living off of traveling and being travel influencers and can work from anywhere. A lot of it is a scam. She was one of the people who refused to leave after Jimin posted for ARMY to go home for safety reasons. He was concerned that there could be a crowd crush because there were so many people still there after they did the livestream. Staff came out and told the crowd to leave and this girl actually threatened physical violence to the woman who came to her section. Staff didn't hear her but it was disrespectful and stupid of her to say that. She wanted her clout pictures of JK and Jimin leaving so she got rude. She was also told to not come out and do that during Yoongi's discharge by someone in her comment section. She responded with "watch us." I'm so glad that Yoongi's discharge was not handled the same way the others were and that he was able to leave without having to deal with stalkers who were told not to show in the first place.
When these accounts get monetized and thousands of people follow them to feed their gossip fix and nosy attitudes, nothing is off limits. They posted JK's home and were reported yet people still showed up while he was enlisted to leave letters in his mail slot. One woman flew all the way from China and stood outside of his home for at least 10 hours with her suitcase, was seen on video brushing her teeth, and tried to break into his home (she was also seen on camera messing with his keypad to the place like she was trying to guess the code to gain entry). People think those real estate videos exposing where members live on YouTube are harmless and they are not. Your intent is not the same as someone else's. Blowing it off as just entertainment or "they know they're famous. It comes with the territory of being and idol," could mean injury or worse to someone we all care about.
We need to stop feeding these people. Because they are monetized they use the money to take more trips and follow the guys. The people who follow them and praise them and give them constant engagement are literally putting food on the table for them and paying for them to travel to stalk idols. The ones paying for Patreon subscriptions or other services that cost money for a subscription for updates pay for them to continue this behavior. People often ask what jobs these sasaengs have that they have all this time off to be everywhere and all this money to travel to South Korea and live this supposedly lavish lifestyle and that's a big part of it. The ones who are fans or followers of these sasaengs are paying for it. Some of them have family money and decent jobs but others do this for a living. The way to get them out of our spaces is to starve them by hitting their money supply. Report them to Hybe and report them for stalking on each platform. Also stop watching and subscribing to their content. Pass the info to your moots as well because some people just don't understand the dynamic of it all. Once it's explained it makes more sense.
I mentioned fan sites before. I didn't know anything about that before I got into BTS. If you don't know you might think they are hired by the company or something but they're not. The pics you see with watermarks all over them and they are so up close and nowadays some are heavily AI edited usually come from them. Some of them have been blacklisted by Hybe and are not allowed at BTS official events anymore. A sasaeng that's all over the timeline right now or has been for the past few days is Nuna V. If you shared Tae pics from Paris or saw them and they had her name on them then you shared sasaeng stalker fan site photos. I've been blocking and muting people sharing her pictures and video. She's a rich one who follows Tae and even gets entry into some exclusive areas and takes photos. She has been blacklisted by Hybe but the Celine events are not Hybe sponsored so she's always there to stalk Tae. And to answer a question that is apparently out there that was asked awkwardly this week- no BTS does not support fan sites. Some of these stalkers take unauthorized photos and hold unauthorized photo gallery showings of their pics and use the intellectual property or IP of BTS to make money off of them and ARMY. They also have fought fans for seats the fans paid good money for at shows because they aren't allowed to take their telephoto lenses in (they're banned at concerts) and they try to steal good seats to take their fan site pics.
Parasocial Relationships
I didn't even know what parasocial relationships were until I got into BTS. I had never heard the term until ARMY started talking about it but I have definitely had parasocial relationships. Parasocial relationships are the connections people have to celebrities or other public figures that are one-sided and the other party may not be aware of the first party. In the case of BTS and ARMY it feels less single-sided every day. BTS performs and does live streams and keeps ARMY informed of their professional lives and things going on off the stage. ARMY shows love and respect back to BTS by voting and streaming and supporting them when things get tough. We report to the legal team when things happen that need to be investigated further in order to protect them and we try to handle things within the fandom when we see disrespectful behavior towards them and their autonomy.
RM has stated that he is a fan of ARMY. RM says, "Thank you for being my fans. Our fans. I am also your fan. I am the fan that silently supports you through your personal battles and loneliness in life. Whether I be backstage or in the work room, I send you my fan letters written in long musical notes, through music. I wish you'd read that sound of missing you dearly. Even though I'm incapable of expressing it all in words, even if I can't do it all through music, I send you my utmost support." Now that's just beautiful and in some magical way, it doesn't feel one-sided at all. Some people never hear messages of support like that from people in their actual lives and it is really comforting to get that from BTS. As a longtime Coldplayer, I love the letters we get from Chris Martin every now and again checking in and he always says he hopes all is well and drops wisdom along with song recommendations. Coldplay are Gen X so they aren't as active as BTS on line in that aspect but coming from the Coldplay fandom and cherishing those letters or video messages from Chris to becoming BTS ARMY and getting into BTS who does live streams and posts on Weverse telling us to be careful in bad weather, not to get sick, and to be happy and healthy is a beautiful thing. It makes me feel loved and respected.
That being said, some people know when to turn it on and off and don't slip out of touch with reality. Curious as to what makes people go that far and cross that line, I decided to briefly look into the psychology of it all. How do you go from daydreaming healthily about BTS to flying from China to South Korea to camp outside of Jungkook's house the day he is discharged from the military? How do you get that delusional that you are sitting there for 10 hours waiting for him to come home, you have your suitcase, and you're messing with the keypad on his door trying to get in? How do you get to the point where you are chasing him through the airport with your suitcase and posting on Twitter that he's supposed to run away with you (I still wonder if these were two different women or the same person)? How do you hop into an elevator with V holding a marriage certificate for someone you have never met demanding that he sign it? How do you get the audacity to buy train info for Namjoon and book a seat next to him? I couldn't fathom losing touch with reality that badly.
According to a National Institute of Health study done in the US, factors leading to stalking behavior are boredom, thrill seeking behavior, and disinhibition. Disinhibition is defined as the inability to control impulsive behaviors. This all makes sense when you put it all together because people who are bored will often create fantasies involving their idols. Though this is normal to an extent, the people with the other factors like thrill seeking behavior and disinhibition are the ones who don't think anything of driving to the airport to try to get pictures of an idol or in the extreme cases, flying out of the country to stalk their home and attempt to gain entry. They don't have shame. They become so delusional that to them it's normal. Their idols belong to them and are talking directly to them during those Weverse posts and live streams rather than 7 or 8 million people. This behavior is dangerous.
When I think about how audacious and arrogant these BTS stalkers are getting it scares me. One particular case when the world lost an amazing music artist due to a psycho that stalked him and murdered him was John Lennon. A member of one of the most iconic bands ever--The Beatles, was killed by a stalker on Dec 8, 1980. He was shot in front of his home at night. The deranged stalker Mark David Chapman was obsessed with him yet was judgmental of him. He hung outside of Lennon's home as did other fans earlier in the day and that same day he had gotten an autograph from Lennon. He came back later and shot and killed him. This was a devastating murder and the killer is a vile and disgusting as the come saying that he killed Lennon so he could become famous and that he didn't mind taking a human life to get that fame (source: People magazine). Chapman admits to being jealous of Lennon as well and saying that Lennon seemed to have everything. He was out of work at the time and was jealous of the lifestyle Lennon was able to live. A lifestyle that John Lennon earned through all of his hard work as a musician and songwriter. When jokes are made that these haters and trolls are "jobless" they really don't seem funny to me and now I really understand why because there's a psychological factor of feeling like a failure and jealousy that plays into the actions of these people. Combined with idol worship and obsession, it's dangerous.
No one knows what someone else is capable of. The sharing of information on where an idol is at any moment whether it is in a restaurant or what hotel they are staying at or even the details of where they live could lead to something horrible happening and people blow it off as just entertainment or say that they know what they are getting into when they become celebrities. This is the same kind of gaslighting and victim blaming that abusers do and as a fandom of mostly women we should know better. I hate how that double standard exists. When stalking happens to women we would be calling for the man's head on a silver platter yet when it happens to BTS I have seen disgusting comments about how they need to do better or they need more security despite them sometimes having 4 or 5 security guards on 1 member.
Sharing airport photos could lead to something devastating happening. The more people that show up at the airport and the more that are able to get close to BTS, the more dangerous it gets. You can't justify sharing airport photos without seeing the bigger picture that the press fashion airport photos leads to people showing up to take their own photos. You can't be for the airport photos being alright to share but not be actively advocating loudly on your platform for the airport to provide safe entry and exit for the celebrities passing through. Incheon was going to do a private entrance for idols but changed their minds when netizens complained (because their idols safety means literally nothing to them if they can't take photos and video and get their proximity to wealth and fame).
Saying that they should travel via private jet only is an ignorant take too because we're dealing with global climate change and terrible storms all over the world, polar ice caps melting, natural disasters, global warming, and deaths from all of the above. Flying private jets constantly along with all of the commercial jets in the sky is only going to contribute negatively to climate change. According to a recent study done and published in Communications Earth, and Environment the most frequent private jet flyers produced 500 times more carbon dioxide emissions than the average person does in a whole year in 2023.
BTS has been vocal in the past against things that hurt the environment like RM on NFTs and J-hope deciding to release Jack in the Box as a digital only album until some fans screamed on social media about him not putting it out as a physical album. The point was to go digital only to curb wasteful buying of some fans who would buy multiple CDs for the photocards and throw away the CD and plastic packaging of extras. He saw that fans were complaining and talked about it at the end of the Jack in the Box documentary and later decided to release it as a physical album to please demanding mantis. Hybe was going to do a series of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) for each artist and RM spoke up against BTS being a part of it. Over 1000 were released apparently and less than 100 sold of Le Sserafim "Antifragile" and Hybe scrapped the idea. BTS may use private jets sometimes but I doubt it would be something they would be on board using every single trip due to the environmental impact.
Conclusion
ARMY is the biggest fandom in the world and it's no secret that we have a lot of pull when it comes to collectively deciding where our attention goes. We can't control what other people post because clout chasing is a thing and speaks louder than common sense to some people. We ask them to remove pictures and they leave them up for engagement. Solos feed stalker influencers because they get their exclusive pics and rumors on their fave from them and they see it as another thing they have that sets them apart from ARMY (thinking they are superior in their own weirdo way). A lot of these accounts that are ok with stalking know full well that what they do is against guidelines and that they attract solos and antis often with their content. They don't care. Negative attention still gets them paid through the attention it brings to their accounts.
What we can do as ARMY is report and block whenever applicable. That means reporting to Hybe, the platforms, and blocking on all platforms. By mass reporting we can potentially get their accounts shut down. Even if they are temporarily suspended or have some posts removed it can still make it difficult for or them to come back and they may get the picture. Using the
protect.hybecorp.com portal will put things into Hybe's legal team's hands to handle and though it may take a while, as legal things tend to, they will handle cases where they have enough evidence to prosecute.
As far as airport photos and airport stalking goes, I do not plan to give attention to any posts where they show up. That means 0 engagement period if I have to mute or block frequent posters. They will say that the pics are legal (or ok to post) if they are told to remove them but the ones being used also come from Korea Dispatch and Dispatch is on the media blocklist indefinitely. It doesn't matter if we complained and these K-media entities issued half-assed apologies or not. We shouldn't give them clicks and attention after how they treated Yoongi and that includes them posting airport photos of the members. Pulling attention and not engaging with the pictures on a large scale will eventually make the people posting stop sharing as much as they realize their numbers go down. This will matter more to large accounts particularly on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok where they are monetized. Do the same on Threads of course. The less engagement given the less these pic will show on our feeds. The hopeful outcome is that if the brands and the press still decide to continue these airport photo shoots then at least maybe the fans will stop showing up if they won't get engagement from posting. If people stop going to the airport and mobbing artists then they can travel freely with less stress and that will make BTS happy which should make ARMY happy as well.
Jimin and Jungkook address the issue of airport stalkers
