The reaction was actually to a girl group.
Koreaboo
41 minutes ago
Social media has become abuzz with a video going viral, accusing Mnet of manipulating audience reactions to a BTS performance.
BTS | BIGHIT MUSIC
The fiasco began with a TikTok user posting a video claiming that during BTS’s 2019 promotion of “Boy With Luv,” Mnet showed a clip of them cheering enthusiastically to the performance when those reactions were actually for a different artist. The OP (original poster) claimed that she was actually reacting to girl group Badkiz’s performance of “Hot Place,” but the network edited the clip to make it appear as if she were watching BTS’s performance.
— Diamond Moon (@lucelalesbo) April 25, 2026
This clip quickly spread across X (formerly Twitter), drawing swift accusations toward BTS’s label for “paying” for this edit. Some went a step ahead and speculated that they specifically went for “white people in the crowd” as bragging points.
And it’s not like they didn’t have people losing their mind there they definitely did they just wanted white people in the crowd to brag about them #lol https://t.co/5Ncs7qJNTz
— !!! (@UpWomyn) April 25, 2026
And they probably had no shortage of asian girls actually reacting to bts like that but they needed this one shot of the white girl to push their “global boy group” narrative https://t.co/hjWG5awUEQ
— 🍄🟫 (@sickdrmfantasy) April 25, 2026
That’s next level embarrassment WHAT?! https://t.co/Y3YRp6CVpQ
— 🦋Adagio | Wheein come back! (@MuntikaJ) April 25, 2026
However, ARMYs have strongly pushed back against these unfounded theories, arguing that in 2019, BTS was already a globally known name and didn’t need a random audience member’s reaction to push any agenda for them.
HYBE didnt even exist in 2019 duffer dangar bhenchod https://t.co/zETh2KFj4I
— Moonchild 2! 3! ⁷ ♡ ⊙⊝⊜ARIRANG 🪭 (@knjrkive613) April 25, 2026
Yeah bc the biggest group in the world needs some unknown girl reaction to them, hybe cant even pay for big playlists and u think theyll pay for stupid ass reaction no one cares about right 😭 https://t.co/HydN9RxPn4
— 𝓯⁷⊙⊝⊜🏊♀️ (@gookiemin__) April 25, 2026
What is your take on this viral claim?
BTS