MOMOLAND's Nancy to take legal action against staff for releasing manipulated photos online
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According to MLD Entertainment, Nancy is in “mental distress” after illegally manipulated photos of her have begun circulating online.
Illegally filming women has always been a huge problem for women.
It was recently reported that a staff member had leaked photos of MOMOLAND member Nancy undressing to a private group chat.
According to reports, a photo of Nancy changing in a dressing room during the 2019 Asia Artist Awards (AAA) has been circulating online through numerous forums, with fans speculating that a staff member was responsible for the illegal action.
At the time, the K-pop idol served as one of the emcees during the prestigious awards night, along with Super Junior member Leeteuk, actress Lim Ji-yeon, and actor Ahn Hyo-seop at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Reports say that the photo was sent to a private group chat comprising of not more than 500 people. But since then, it has made rounds in news forums and group chats.
Since then, the incident has reached fans of the popular K-pop girl group, who brought the issue immediately to MLD Entertainment, the agency handling MOMOLAND and Nancy.
Following the incident, MLD Entertainment and the AAA's organizing committee both issued statements regarding the issue.
As reported by SBS News, the statement said, “Illegally manipulated photographs of Nancy have not too long ago circulated online and several social networking platforms.
“Nancy is a victim of having photographs being inappropriately taken in secret and then illegally manipulated. The person to be protected is no other than Nancy.”
It added, “We ask for your cooperation. We will take strong legal action against the person who took the photo, the original spreader, as well as anyone who spreads the photo.
“We will also be going through our legal steps to file suits for sexual harassment, as well as the spread of illicit photos.
“Nancy is currently suffering from a great amount of mental distress. We hope that there will be no more malicious posts related to our artist.”
Meanwhile, the organizing committee of AAA apologized to Nancy and said that they would cooperate with law enforcement authorities in both Vietnam and South Korea.
Illegally taken photos and videos showing women in intimate situations, or “molka,” is a serious problem in South Korea.
In 2017 alone, there were a reported 6,400 cases of illegal filming reported to the police sparking a widespread protest in the country and calling it an epidemic.
Aside from Nancy, other female K-pop stars are victims of “molka,” including the late Goo Hara.
In 2019, Rolling Stone reported that nearly one-quarter of deepfake porn videos contained images of K-pop stars.
