ILLIT’s agency has warned of strong legal action for invasion of privacy.
On January 9, ILLIT’s agency BELIFT LAB posted the following official statement on Weverse:
Hello, this is BELIFT LAB.
As acts of illegally obtaining ILLIT members’ personal information and threatening their safety have recently gone too far, we would like to present BELIFT LAB’s position on this matter.
After ILLIT completed official overseas activities, a serious invasion of privacy occurred involving some members who were tending to personal scheduled activities before returning to Korea. Having identified in advance signs that their return information had been leaked, we changed the departure airport and flight time immediately prior to their return to secure our artists’ safety. Nevertheless, multiple individuals had already obtained the artists’ ticket details and pursued them to the changed airport. They not only tried to approach the artists and start conversations but even criticized their wearing of masks and demanded to take photos against their will, thereby threatening the members. We view this matter with utmost seriousness, especially given that the changed ticket information was confidential—known only to the artists themselves and a very small number of related personnel—yet was leaked in real time.
We have repeatedly made clear that unlawfully acquiring our artists’ personal information and showing up at nonpublic scheduled activities is a very serious problem and that we are pursuing legal action. However, seeing incidents escalate to the point of tracking artists’ personal schedules in real time, appearing on-site, attempting contact, and making threats, we have determined this has reached a level we can no longer tolerate. Accordingly, we have requested the active cooperation of the relevant airline to verify access histories and log records. In addition, we are continuously collecting evidence against those engaging in stalking behaviors that threaten our artists, and we state unequivocally that we will hold them strictly liable under the law with a zero-tolerance policy, without any settlements or leniency.
We will continue to do our utmost to ensure our artists can focus on their activities in a safe environment. In particular, we reiterate that we will spare no means or methods to protect them from stalking, and we ask for fans’ active reports and cooperation.
Thank you.