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'Please protect Ningning': aespa's Ningning fans slam SM Entertainment for not taking action against online death threats

Haters began targeting Ningning's family and issuing death threats, allegedly telling Ningning to 'go kill herself' along with several other hateful texts

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: aespa's 19-year-old Ningning has been at the receiving end of several death threats and derogatory remarks from Karina and Winter's Chinese akgaes on Bubble. The Chinese akgaes also hurled insulting and offensive comments at Ningning's family.

Ningning is a Chinese singer who is signed to SM Entertainment. She is the maknae (youngest) of the K-pop girl group aespa. Ningning, along with Yiyang, was introduced as a new member of the trainee team SMROOKIES on September 19, 2016. She appeared on My SMT's "Who's the best?" segment in September 2016, alongside fellow rookies Koeun, Hina, and Yiyang. Later in 2017-2018, she performed several OST for the MBC animated series Shining Star alongside actresses Park Jung Yeon, Koeun, and Hina. 

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'The Chinese cyberbullies started targeting Ningning's family'

Later, Ningning was revealed as the third member of aespa on October 29, 2020. The group made its debut on November 17, 2020 with the most anticipated digital hit single "Black Mamba." With 21.4 million views in 24 hours, the Black Mamba's music video received the most views for a K-pop group's debut video. Commercially, the song charted in five countries, peaking at 49 in South Korea and 5 on the US Billboard World Digital Songs. Aespa also promoted the song with live televised performances on South Korean music shows such as Show! Music Core, Music Bank, and Inkigayo. 

The Bubble app is a paid service by Lysn provided by SM Entertainment's Dear U in which users can respond by receiving messages, photos, and videos sent by artists after paying for it. It also provides a Dear U Bubble service, which allows artists and fans to communicate. The Chinese fans of aespa's Karina and Winter take over Bubble just to harass Ningning. The cyberbullying became so bad that Chinese akgaes (malicious individual fans) began targeting Ningning's family and issuing death threats, allegedly telling Ningning to 'go kill herself' along with several other hateful texts. This isn't the first time Ningning has been mocked and targeted by nasty comments on the Bubble app. She was previously criticized for sending a message in Chinese on the Korean chat, where Knetz called her a hypocrite for writing her return update in Chinese. 

'Please protect NINGNING!' 

Fans of Aespa's Ningning took matters into their own hands, creating the hashtag '#ProtectNingning' and also trending 'SM Protect Ningning'. The fans are clearly upset that SM Entertainment has not taken any legal action in response to several malicious comments. One fan points out, "(1) It has come to our attention that antis have subscribed to 🦋’s bbl in order to send hate towards her. 🦋’s bbl is supposed to be a safe space for her to freely interact and communicate with her fans. With this, we are inviting everyone to send positive messages to Ningning".

Another fan says, "Paying for a subscription like bubble and using that as a way to send these disgusting messages to Ningning knowing she might see them is a level of hatred I’ve never seen in my life before..SM PROTECT NINGNING". Another one says, "Please Protect Ningning!!! Karina and Winter’s Chinese fans are insulting Ningning on bubble! We will protect Ningning to stay away from this cyber violence! So please send Ningning message of love everyday! #NINGNING  #PROTECTNINGNING #NINGNINGWELOVEYOU”. One more fan says that they're sad to see comments like this to 19 year old Ningning, "Please protect NINGNING! She has got abused and humilated on the bubble". 

Disclaimer: This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.