K-Pop group NewJeans demands YouTube reveal YouTuber’s identity so they can sue

K-pop girlband NewJeans have turned to US federal court to help identify a YouTuber so they can start a lawsuit for defamation against them and the bad things they’ve said about the band.

NewJeans, one of the biggest K-pop groups in the world, has asked a federal court in California to order Google to release the identity of the person behind a YouTube account that the members say is spreading defamatory statements about them.

According to court docs obtained by Rolling Stone, the YouTuber posts were from a user under the handle @Middle7, who reportedly has made “as many as 33 defamatory videos” about the members of NewJeans which have been viewed viewed more than 13 million times.

The ex parte application claims @Middle7 has “engaged in name-calling or other mocking behavior” against NewJeans, “all of which constitute defamation and/or crime of insult under the laws of the Republic of Korea.” 

NewJeans’ management agency Ador told The New York Times: “We regularly take legal action for violations of artists’ rights.”

The members of the band initially filed a criminal complaint against the YouTuber with a police station in Seoul. But the case could not go forward because the YouTube account was anonymous, according to the filing. Because of this, they sought help from the US federal court in the hopes of identifying the YouTuber.

While criticizing and expressing negative opinions on social media happens on a daily basis in the USA, South Korea has stricter rules regarding the matter. If the federal court grants the band’s request, it would allow the group to sue the YouTube user in South Korea for defamation and insult, which are criminal offenses in the country.

The South Korean authorities are better able to identify users on domestic platforms like Naver and Kakao, said Kyongsok Chong, a South Korean lawyer representing Starship Entertainment, the management agency for IVE, another K-pop group. Defamation cases about content posted on websites like YouTube, Instagram and X have stalled.

“Most of the victims of defamation who have come to me for advice have because of YouTube,” he said, adding that the platform was a “blind spot” for the authorities seeking to uproot users who defame stars while profiting from their videos.

As a result, people have flocked to those platforms because they believe they can hide.