Ailee On Hiatus Indefinitely Following Nude Photo Scandal: Is The Boycott Allkpop Movement Losing Steam?

Ailee may be on an indefinite hiatus after allkpop published unauthorized nude photos of the singer on Nov. 10, but the battle has continued to rage online as several bloggers have called for a boycott of the Korean entertainment website.

Yet in the last several days, the Ailee fan outrage towards allkpop and their vice president of content Daniel Lee, believed to have leaked the nude photos, appears to have cooled.

"Is everyone done with their allkpop fast now?" a blogger known as allkcrap wrote in a post to the microblogging website Twitter on Wednesday.  

"They're back at their [Twitter] follower levels pre-Ailee scandal."

Four days after the photos were published, the blogger reported, "after dropping about 22,000 followers, allkpop's Twitter account has rebounded and is gaining again."

Allkpop currently has over 1.2 million Twitter followers.

But Asian Junkie's Jason Yu thinks the anti-allkpop sentiment has far from run its course.

"While the site is too big to capsize completely, they now have an uphill battle to regain the trust of the artists, fans, and companies," Yu wrote on Wednesday.

"Because as it is, to Koreans, they've permanently stained their brand and perception through their attempt to mess with Ailee. And that stuff is hard to get out.

"So the statement [allkpop staff member Matt Kim] posted earlier about Ailee not recovering is more than a little bit off," Yu added.

"It should say, 'I don't see allkpop recovering from this.'"

It took Sasha Traynor and Lizzie Parker, the founders of the online British publication Beyond Hallyu, less than 24 hours after the nude Ailee photos were published to call for a lifetime allkpop ban.

"After a discussion between my co-founder Sasha and myself we decided, as a website, to boycott allkpop completely from now on with support from the rest of our team," Parker wrote on Nov. 11.

Her post included a link to a statement on the website Tumblr with more details of Beyond Hallyu's allkpop ban.

"Beyond Hallyu will no longer be linking to articles from allkpop either on our website or on our social networking profiles," the statement read.

"As it now appears that allkpop themselves were the originating source for the photos of Ailee they are circulating we cannot condone this behavior."

"In Korea the release of these kinds of photos is illegal and it is also highly immoral," the statement added.

"We cannot stand by and watch this website attempt to destroy this young woman's career simply for page views. We will not stand by and watch her bodily autonomy and personal privacy be infringed on for the sake of advertising revenue."

Yet, Popdust reporter Jacques Peterson claims the nude photo scandal has helped Ailee's career.

"Multiple K-pop stars over the past year have received considerable backlash from fans and the public for offences as small as not smiling on stage or misusing a word in an interview, but Ailee...appears to be benefiting from her scandal," Peterson wrote on Monday.

"Since the photos hit the web, Ailee's surged ahead in the fan-voted polls for the 2013 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA). She's now ranking first for Best Female Artist, surpassing Lee Hyori, who was previously leading, as well as first in the Best Female Vocal Performance category, beating out last week's leader, IU."

With two days left before the 2013 MAMA ceremony, Ailee is still poised for a big win.

Ailee, who will reportedly appear at the MAMAs, broke down in tears while thanking fans in her acceptance speech at last week's MelOn Music Awards.

"After Ailee started crying on the stage, all the tears that she's been holding back burst. She couldn't control her tears even on her way home," a representative from Ailee's record label YMC Entertainment said in a statement published to the singer's official Facebook page on Saturday.

"I think all the hardship she held in her heart exploded. All the support from so many people moved her heart."

The YMC representative offered only vague details regarding the singer's hiatus.

"She will be taking a rest," the rep said. "We don't have anything specially planned out for her and she needs a time to rest her body and heart."

Requests from KpopStarz for comment from Daniel Lee, allkpop and YMC Entertainment were not immediately responded to.

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