NCT: SM Entertainment announces legal action against malicious rumours about Taeyong; Fans show their support - PINKVILLA

Even though Taeyong had apologised and made amends about his past behaviour during his middle school days, an informant is accusing the NCT member of not adhering to the apology. Read SM Entertainment's full statement on how they plan to take legal action against malicious rumours about the Long Flight rapper.

Last year, when NCT member Taeyong was accused of insensitive behaviour towards a classmate from middle school, the rapper made it a point to issue an apology for his actions. However, very recently, an informant claimed that Taeyong's 'actions' could not be erased by his apology as Dispatch reported chats that were possibly edited to make the 24-year-old rapper look like a bully. Moreover, the text where he reportedly said sorry was deleted. SM Entertainment shared a statement on putting an end to the malicious rumours about their talent once and for all.

In their statement, via Soompi, SM shared that the distorted claims continue to spread over the Internet which is leading to serious damage in the form of invasion of privacy, insults and defamation against Taeyong and his family. Moreover, SM plans to take legal action if the malicious posts about the Long Flight rapper continue on. SM further asked for everyone to halt any illegal acts like posting or spreading rumours, leaving malicious comments or invading the privacy of all individuals related to Taeyong’s middle school days, including the informant.

Check out SM Entertainment's full statement on NCT member Taeyong below:

Hello, this is SM Entertainment.

This is our statement on the content regarding our artist Taeyong that is being spread online.

The individual who has been posting online about Taeyong’s past words and actions during middle school has stated that they are an informant stepping up for the victim, and they have been continuously posting unconfirmed one-sided claims and distorted facts.

Taeyong has already sincerely apologized to the victim and provided compensation regarding his faults of the past. However, the informant continued to make one-sided claims using distorted and exaggerated facts to attack Taeyong. We have been aware of this, but as the informant is a former classmate of Taeyong’s, there were concerns that secondary damage could be inflicted on his friends from middle school and any related people. Taeyong himself has patiently endured the situation out of the concern that his middle school classmates may potentially be harmed.

However, the distorted claims continued to surface and spread, leading to serious damage in the form of invasion of privacy, insults, and defamation of not only Taeyong, but also his family. The situation has reached a point in which we cannot continue to show tolerance to protect our artist.

Therefore, if malicious posts about Taeyong continue to surface, we will no longer overlook them and take strong legal action for defamation against the informant.

Moreover, we will take strong action without lenience regarding the dissemination and expansive reproduction of related unconfirmed content as well as other clearly unlawful acts such as leaving malicious comments about Taeyong and his family.

To avoid any further damage, we ask everyone to halt any illegal acts such as posting or spreading rumours, leaving malicious comments, or invading the privacy of all individuals related to Taeyong’s middle school days, including the informant.

We will continue to take legal action against any illegal acts by strengthening the existing monitoring process and legal measures that we have taken to protect our artists until now.

Thank you.

Meanwhile, Taeyong's fans took to Twitter to offer their support to Taeyong while celebrating his goodwill:

taeyong finally got the justice he deserves

— ro (@ROROSIE71) June 24, 2020

now everyone should apologize to taeyong

— (@127dailypics) June 24, 2020

thank you tyongfs for all your hard work, we have suffered and had bad days, or weeks, but i hope all of you are happy and healthy! i love you all! and taeyong of course

— LTY protect (@LTYProtect) June 24, 2020

"but the informant is Taeyong's classmate" "And Taeyong himself was worried that he would cause damage to his middle school classmate"

TAEYONG IS AN ANGEL
THE REAL ANGEL IS EXIST AND HIS NAME IS TAEYONG pic.twitter.com/dX8DkR7ZN5

— (@nctyrose) June 24, 2020

the way some people still don’t get that we’re not celebrating dispatch, we’re celebrating the fact that taeyong is finally free from YEARS of har*ssment!!! we would celebrate the same if any other major news outlet published it!! ever heard of the phrase “lesser of two evils”?

— (@neocircus127) June 24, 2020