Online claims targeting singer IU have resurfaced, this time involving an unrelated missing person case in Jeju from 2020. The conspiracy theories were posted by a user who claimed to have been sued by IU’s agency, and they continue to spread online despite having no factual basis.
The latest wave of claims began with a post shared on August 25th by an account called “Young Adults for Liberal Democracy”. The account claimed, “I have been sued by IU for defamation,” and alleged that “they filed lawsuits against hundreds of people.” The post also criticized South Korea’s so-called “7.7 Network Act” as “an evil law pushed by the Democratic Party” and claimed the account owner was facing impeachment and repeated lawsuits.
The post then linked several unrelated details together, including the location of Kakao’s headquarters, the disappearance of a person identified as Heo in Jeju in 2020, a purple tracksuit IU wore on JTBC’s Hyori’s Homestay, and her 2024 song “Shh…” The account falsely claimed that Heo was “an individual who exposed IU on the internet.”
The post received thousands of likes, while other users added their own conspiracy theories and helped spread the claims further.
However, the supposed “evidence” does not match the facts.
Tang Wei, who appeared in the music video for “Shh…”, previously explained through her agency that IU’s character is “very interesting,” playing her mother as well as a friend. IU also explained that the person she addresses in her part of the song is her mother, saying, “I wanted to start with my mother’s story.” There is no evidence connecting Tang Wei’s character to Heo.
The claim involving IU’s purple tracksuit is also misleading. The episode of Hyori’s Homestay in which IU wore the outfit aired in 2017, while Heo disappeared in December 2020. The purple outfit shown in the post was actually from an older identification photo, and there is no evidence that the two outfits were the same product.
IU has already been taking legal action against the spread of false claims. In February, her agency announced that it had filed civil and criminal lawsuits against 96 individuals over malicious posts targeting the singer.
According to the agency, one person who spread false conspiracy theories alleging that IU was involved in espionage was fined 5 million won ($3,600). Another person who made false plagiarism allegations and filed a copyright infringement complaint against IU was ordered to pay 30 million won ($21,500) in damages.
The agency has also begun pursuing users on overseas platforms. “We have filed civil lawsuits for damages against users who spread false information and defamed the artist on the overseas site Thread,” the agency said. “We are in the process of filing an application for disclosure of information with a U.S. court to identify these users.”
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