Fans are still angry at HYBE Labels even after they issued their apology regarding body searches at a fan signing event.
On July 8, &TEAM, a group managed by their Japanese label, held a fan signing event in Seoul, Korea.
Following the fan signing event, fans who attended the event shared that security guards made them feel humiliated and sexually harassed them under the reason that they were conducting body searches to prevent them from entering the venue with recording devices.
Then on July 9, HYBE Labels released a statement on WeVerse Shop, apologizing to fans while explaining their security measures.
HYBE Labels said, "We apologize to all fans that came to &TEAM's fan signing event yesterday, where female security guards ran body searches.", confirming no male security guards conducted body searches.
They detailed why they had to go as far with the searches, "To avoid any audio or video recordings of the private one-on-one conversations between fans and artists circulating online and potentially causing issues for the parties involved, we have always enforced strict rules against bringing in electronic devices to fan signing events."
"On July 8, we encountered numerous instances of fans trying to sneak in electronic devices by hiding them in various body parts. That was why body searches were carried out by female security officers."
"We've offended event attendees in the course of this process. We acknowledge that, even for the sake of safety, we shouldn't have made fans feel uncomfortable like that. We apologize for what happened on site. Also, we'll look into implementing contactless methods to improve security so that everyone can have a good time with our artists.", they ended the statement here.
Many frowned upon reading their apology, because they believed HYBE Labels much heavily focused on emphasizing how important the talks between their artists and fans should never be recorded rather than fans' rights.
They claimed that HYBE Labels shifted the blame back onto the fans and did little to acknowledge the outrage a lot of &TEAM fans felt about being physically searched without consent.
Their comments included, "Their conversation doesn't even last 10 minutes in total. Why are they making such a big fuss about it anyway? Don't they know that them and their artists live off the money fans spend?", "That's it, really? Are they only going to apologize properly if fans sued them or what?", "I was there, and I had to take my bra off and get my breasts touched. While that was going on, other security guards walked into the room. Imagine how you would feel, HYBE staff! We need more than this apology!" and so on.
(Credit= HYBE Labels)