Military, Drugs....and now Ilbe? Take Caution, Celebs

There are two things in the entertainment industry that plague one's image like the "Scarlet Letter" forever - military service fraud and drugs. Any celebrity that has been linked with either of those has to brace themselves to endure criticism for the rest of their career.

Ultraconservative website Daily Best Compilations (aka Ilbe) has been added to that list, it seems. However, Ilbe carries a different type of reach in implicating celebrities because unlike drugs and military service fraud, just a mention of a single word can cause an angry web-mob to rise in a wave of negative publicity.

Even though they don't support Ilbe or discuss their participation on it, celebrities using the common lingo of the website on social networks and television are being ostracized regardless of their actual participation or activities on Ilbe. Apologies and explanations often go ignored, and the criticism piles on.

Busker Busker member Kim Hyung Tae wrote "Honey G Brothers Chart Jong Bum" on his twitter on August 22nd. This is a common lingo found on Ilbe and is most commonly used as an insult to baseball player Lee Jong Bum and the Kia Giants. It means to become invisible or disappear.

After finding out what it means, Kim Hyung Tae erased it from his Twitter, replacing it with, "I had no idea that it was a bad word, deleting now" and "I hate, hate bad words". He made sure to let it be known that he had used the lingo out of ignorance, but a few people claimed that they were able to find evidence of Kim Hyung Tae's involvement in another ultraconservative website, DC Insider, in which he called ex-president Roh Moo Hyun "unji". They are now treating him like a member of Ilbe.

This example is not an isolated incident but is becoming more and more common. The most notorious case is Crayon Pop. Crayon Pop tweeted something that included "Nomu Nomu", which is another derogatory term for ex-president Roh Moo Hyun found in the Ilbe lingo. The news that the CEO of Chrome Entertainment (Crayon Pop's Company) logged on to Ilbe only added fuel to the fire.

Indie band 10cm's Kwon Jung Yeol tweeted "I respect them" along with a picture of Crayon Pop and was accused of being a member of Ilbe. Kwon Jung Yeol had to explicitly explain, "I don't do any of that stuff" to the citizens.

Crayon Pop, while maintaining a huge following and love from their fans in their consistent number 1 rankings on music charts, were also attacked heavily for their Ilbe connections. Crayon Pop released a statement on their official fan cafe that they have no connections with Ilbe, but the criticism doesn't look like it'll cease anytime soon.

This new "Scarlet Letter" of Ilbe is creating serious psychological stress for entertainers in all different functions. Despite the hatred against Ilbe, Ilbe lingo has spilled over and integrated to general internet lingo. This calls for extra caution, especially from celebrities, since this new syndrome does not show signs of stopping.

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Ilbe
Busker Busker
Crayon Pop
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