Racism against Asians has allegedly occurred during 'M COUNTDOWN' in Paris, France.
In the evening of October 15, Mnet's music show 'M COUNTDOWN' was held at Paris La Défense Arena.
The lineup of artists included ATEEZ, NCT DREAM, SHOWNU X HYUNGWON, TAEMIN, TREASURE, ZEROBASEONE, Dreamcatcher and more.
Those at home who were watching the livestream believed the concert had ended successfully, but in fact, an eye-frowning incident had taken place at the venue during the show.
Several disturbing on-site videos were uploaded on social media afterward, and they went viral online in no time.
The videos showed a number of security guards using great force to pin Asian fans down on the ground and grabbing them by their arms out of the location.
Some concertgoers wrote in the comments that the security guards showed increased hostility, particularly toward Asians.
According to them, security guards insisted on removing Asian attendees despite objections from other audience members, and they acted brutally while doing so, almost resorting to violence.
They said security guards singled out Asian attendees for bag checks when they had just been watching the show without cameras, while ignoring Western attendees with cameras actually filming the artists.
Then on October 18, one Korean person in the video said, "I did have a camera with me, but I was not stopped or instructed during the initial baggage inspection upon entry. There was also no signage on the premise warning that cameras were not permitted to be brought in or recorded. And I didn't even have my camera out when they came to me."
"As I was watching the show, they suddenly came up to me and asked to open my bag. When I refused, they threw me to the floor with a lot of force and started choking me. I was escorted out as if I was some sort of terrorist. My female friend who tried to help me also was forcefully escorted out of the venue. After taking her out, she went through an inappropriate body search too."
"It turned out we weren't the only ones who were dragged out mid-show like this. Outside, there was a bunch of other Asians who went through what we went through. In the process of controlling us, security guards even confiscated our phones so that we couldn't call the police or embassy, or record what was happening. They even got us to stand facing the wall so that we couldn't speak with one another. Human rights were completely violated."
He added that when they were finally free to go, lots of items the security team had taken away from them had gone missing that they had to leave empty-handed as well.
Regarding this issue, Mnet has said nothing more than "We are verifying the facts at the moment." yet.
(Credit= Online Community, CJ ENM)