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Ningning's Olympic row: aespa star's Instagram hacked, fans ask SM to protect idol

Knetizens are angry at Ningning for supporting Chinese gold medalists at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

It looks like Ningning’s situation is getting out of hand. A majority of Knetizens are sending hate messages to the aespa star for supporting China at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. With South Korea calling out China for cheating in one of the games and taking credit for Korean culture, Knetizens think that it was insensitive for Ningning to cheer for Chinese gold medalists. It should be noted that she had also sent well wishes to athletes from South Korea and other countries. But when fans pointed out that she is Chinese and was just supporting her home country, Knetizens have resorted to demanding that she leave aespa and go back to China. 

K-pop Twitter was further enraged when the 19-year-old’s private Instagram was allegedly hacked by one angry Knetizen. They leaked the aespa member's follower and following list. Fans realized it was really Ningning’s account when they saw that artists like pH-1, aespa’s stylists and Ningning’s known friends were following it. Knetizens further asked SM to delete Ningning’s post while the company's stock prices fell down by 1.49%.

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aespa Ningning slammed for supporting China at 2022 Olympics, fans say she’s Chinese

Fans exasperated with Ningning hate

International fans are also pointing out the ridiculousness of the situation as Knetizens are angry at Chinese users for sending hate to BTS’ RM for supporting the Korean athletes at the 2022 Olympics. Fans and non-fans made tweets like, “Namjoon and Ningning supporting their own countries athletes got them dragged y'all some weirdos istg,” and “Koreans attacking Ningning and Chinese people attacking Namjoon. what do these people expect? Ofcourse they will support their country's team!”

‘SM protect your maknae’

MYs (aespa’s fandom) have taken it upon themselves to trend the whole thing and bring SM’s attention to the hate their youngest idol is getting. One fan tweeted, “Ningning is only a 19 years old, she is a human, she did nothing wrong and she doesn’t deserve her privacy to be invaded, please @SMTOWNGLOBAL protect your artists.” Another added, “Sm’s youngest idol has been severely cyberbullied for days and sm has done nothing to protect her. she is innocent and does not deserve this hate. SM PROTECT YOUR MAKNAE.” 

One MY posted, “Ningning is only 19 years old yet is already a main vocalist of a successful kpop group. Some people seems to be so threatened of her for being so successful at a young age that they try to tarnish her success.” Another shared, “How can you bully this precious bean?! imagine they hacked her acc, calling her names, bullying her just because she supports her country? i don't get it. shut up knetz. sit the f**k down.” 

One worried fan pointed out that the hacker had been targeting Ningning since before, “They were certain it was her when the account was caught watching one of her publicly known friend’s Instagram Live.  If her friend's ig live wasn't new does that mean that they've been hacking her account way before this issue started?” Another fan blamed SM for not protecting their Chinese artists, “Whenever SM chinese idols are attacked, the company always remains silent. Just like what SM did to Luhan and Tao, Ningning and even Lucas. SM doesn't learn, PROTECT YOUR ARTISTS!”

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