The controversy was too big to be ignored.
Koreaboo
1 hour ago
HYBE girl groups ILLIT and LE SSERAFIM have sparked a heated outrage on social media over their allegedly problematic behavior toward NewJeans, particularly Hanni.
ILLIT | BELIFT LAB LE SSERAFIM | @le_sserafim/Instagram
The controversy stemmed from a recently resurfaced dance challenge in which ILLIT collaborated with actress Ji Yea Un to promote their song, “Do the Dance.”
NewJeans fans noted that it was odd for ILLIT, which is under the same agency umbrella as NewJeans, to participate in a dance trend alongside an actress embroiled in a major 2024 controversy over her racist mockery of NewJeans member Hanni. She parodied Hanni’s appearance at the National Assembly for an SNL Korea skit, mimicking her accent and broken Korean.
“Racist” And “Disgusting” — “SNL Korea” Gets Severely Slammed For Parodying NewJeans Hanni’s Audit Appearance
The issue sparked major backlash in 2024, and the official video of the skit was eventually removed from YouTube.
As ILLIT’s dance challenge video started doing the rounds on social media again, some fans were reminded that LE SSERAFIM, another labelmate group of NewJeans, had also done a dance challenge with Ji Yea Un.
lsrfm too🥴 https://t.co/pwjHednYSF pic.twitter.com/aTQ6cDbXaS
— lou⁵ (@godjeanz) August 9, 2026
NewJeans fans are outraged by these discoveries, arguing that if it were the other way around, people would not have overlooked it so easily.
mind you newjeans got dragged just for taking a photo with a fan and they didn’t even post it publicly but these bullies can dance with a fucking RACIST who was mocking hanni for struggling with a language that isn’t even her first but her third + these two groups were also… https://t.co/h7Hy8ybxmi
— 🐈⬛ྀིྀི (@dittokja) August 9, 2026
the actual bully group is illit https://t.co/4fldEt2yVW
— ۟ (@hybendings) August 9, 2026
can’t imagine what would’ve happen if this was newjeans https://t.co/SCgrImHyEA
— revi ✿ (@nwjnsour) August 9, 2026
no wonder illit’s fans were so racist towards Hanni and even went as far as trying to get her deported https://t.co/Fuc79M6lMw pic.twitter.com/TwaRwlAPw1
— avril (@itgirlavril) August 9, 2026
Meanwhile, with the debut of a new HYBE girl group, many netizens recently raised doubts about the label trying to dilute the branding of NewJeans.
HYBE Girl Group Faces Accusations Of Blatantly Copying NewJeans…Again