NewJeans is asking a federal court to find and reveal the identity of a person who has allegedly posted “false and defamatory videos” about them on YouTube, according to Rolling Stone. The K-pop girl group filed an ex parte application last month after submitting a criminal complaint in South Korea. However, the case could not move forward without the poster’s identity.
The band’s lawyer originally attempted to get the person’s information from Google informally, but it did not work. The publication obtained the court documents that claim that the YouTuber goes by @Middle7 and has over 12,000 subscribers. They claim the user has “as many as 33 defamatory videos” about NewJeans, which have been viewed millions of times.
In NewJeans’ ex parte application, they note that @Middle7 allegedly “engaged in name-calling or other mocking behavior” against them, “all of which constitute defamation and/or crime of insult under the laws of the Republic of Korea.”
The outlet points out that the laws in South Korea do not take kindly to virtual harassment. Even last year, K-pop group IVE similarly had a lawyer get a name of a YouTuber making “false statements” through the US court system, and they were able to win a civil lawsuit in South Korea.
Only time will tell how NewJeans’ filing plays out.
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