Protests continue.
Koreaboo
33 minutes ago
Following the news of Heeseung’s departure from ENHYPEN, fans have been expressing their emotions in various ways.
Heeseung | BE:LIFT Lab
One such way is protest, as seen in trucks parked outside HYBE and demands made in that manner.
Protest Trucks Sent To HYBE To Bring Back ENHYPEN’s Heeseung Sparks Backlash
Another method was made shortly after the announcement, in the form of a petition on Change.org.
A petition titled “Allow Heeseung to Pursue Solo Activities Without Leaving ENHYPEN” currently has over 1,000,000 signatures and counting, and asks three points of Be:lift Lab and HYBE.
| Change.org
- Please allow Heeseung to continue his activities as a member of ENHYPEN while also releasing a solo album.
- Please help them to pursue group and individual activities side by side, as is common in the K-pop industry.
- Please protect ENHYPEN’s value and identity as a whole.
Typically, when a group’s activities provoke backlash, their social media following declines, losing followers across platforms as fans enact a boycott. However, in the case of ENHYPEN, the group’s following count on Instagram has grown by over 100,000 since the announcement, a massive uptick in daily follows compared to previously.
The group’s Facebook account followers also saw a huge increase in a single day.
Instagram followers | Social Blade Facebook followers | Social Blade
This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the fans are making their feelings known in other ways, but it perhaps shows how widespread the calls for his return have reached.