ILLIT’s Wonhee made headlines for her reaction to hateful comments during a live broadcast on May 14th, marking the group’s 50th day since debut.
The 16-year-old member of ILLIT was engaging with fans on the Weverse platform when she paused while reading comments and appeared to report several of them. This repeated action led some viewers to speculate that Wonhee was directly reporting hate comments.
Fans expressed their concern for the young idol. Comments poured in, saying, “It’s heartbreaking that she has to delete hate comments herself during a celebratory broadcast,” “HYBE is being greedy, and a minor member is paying the price,” and “What did these kids do to deserve this? It’s so sad.”
However, some viewers suggested that the scene might have been orchestrated by the agency. During the broadcast, Wonhee kept side-eyeing the staff, who handed her the phone. While it’s not uncommon for members to use separate phones to read comments, this particular action led to suspicions that “the agency might be staging this to garner sympathy.”
Meanwhile, ILLIT, who debuted in March, has been under fire with plagiarism allegations from the start, particularly concerning NewJeans. On April 22nd, ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin accused ILLIT of being a “NewJeans copycat,” fueling the controversy. NewJeans’ choreographers also made comments targeting ILLIT. The conflict between HYBE and CEO Min has been ongoing since April 22nd.
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