Fans have started a campaign to boycott K-pop boy band RIIZE after member Seunghan was removed from the group.
On Oct. 11, SM Entertainment, through its Wizard Production, announced that Seunghan (승한) would be returning to RIIZE after 10 months of hiatus brought about by issues.
“As fans know, it has been about 10 months since Seunghan suspended his team activities due to personal issues before his debut. We have carefully planned RIIZE’s next chapter since before their debut, and we have decided that it will be more meaningful when all seven members are together. As a result of several discussions with the staff and members regarding the future direction of the team's activities, we have decided that Seunghan will return to the team. After joining the team and preparing for a certain period of time, Seunghan will sequentially participate in some of the team's schedules planned for November and greet fans again,” it said.
RIIZE as a complete group with seven members in a photo released in 2023 (Screenshot from Weverse video)
Seunghan (Facebook)
RIIZE with six members (Instagram)
However, on Oct. 13, or just two days after the announcement, SM Entertainment changed its decision and said Seunghan had left RIIZE (라이즈) as the Korean entertainment agency bowed to pressure from some fans in South Korea who opposed the K-pop idol’s return to the group.
“However, after announcing the news of his return, we looked back on the opinions and reactions from fans one by one, and realized that our decision only caused more confusion and hurt to fans,” Wizard Production stated.
It added, “At the same time, Seunghan expressed his intention to leave the team for the sake of the members and fans. We respect the artist's decision, and we would like to inform you that Seunghan is leaving RIIZE, not joining. We will continue to support Seunghan so that he can pursue his talents and dreams."
This angered fans especially outside South Korea who criticized SM Entertainment for the decision.
As a result, fans launched different actions to boycott RIIZE to make it known to SM Entertainment that they want Seunghan back in the group.
Sellers of K-pop albums and merchandise in different countries also joined the movement by announcing that they will stop restocking RIIZE albums and merchandise to support the pro-Seunghan fans.
N.Cat Philippines, a K-pop store in the Philippines, is one of sellers that joined the “Boycott RIIZE” movement.
“We cannot, in good conscience, tolerate such injustice to happen and continue to patronize a company who so thoughtlessly treats their artists with little respect. The situation with RIIZE and Hong Seunghan is truly unnerving, and NCAT Philippines is joining in on efforts to demand responsibility from SM Entertainment,” it said in a statement posted on X.
It added, “We will no longer be restocking RIIZE albums and any other related merchandise by the artist upon stock depletion. No pre-orders of future releases will be opened from here on out, until an acceptable resolution from SM Entertainment has been made.”
The store also said it will donate P27,000 (about $468) “to Seunghan support initiatives.”
“We hope that through this, Seunghan knows that he is not alone in this ordeal, and that the support he has outnumbers the hate,” it added.
Other K-pop stores that joined the boycott include Seoul Stop, Poppe Shop and SubK Shop.
Fans also sent trucks in front of the SM Entertainment building in Seoul to show support to Seunghan and ask SM Entertainment to reinstate him.
Filipino fans sent a truck with the message to Seunghan, “Hindi ka namin iiwan, mahal ka namin! (We will not leave you, we love you!”
The truck sent by Filipino fans with the message "Hindi ka namin iiwan, mahal ka namain!" (Photo from @wonbinseok on X)
The boycott also calls on fans to unfollow RIIZE social media accounts. As of Oct. 16, RIIZE’s social media accounts have lost followers.
According to analytics website Social Blade, RIIZE lost 228,743 followers on Instagram from 4,156,550 followers on Oct. 11 to 3,929,647 followers as of Oct. 16.
On Twitter, RIIZE’s followers decreased by 68,549 from 803,299 on Oct. 11 to 734,750 on Oct. 16.
On YouTube, RIIZE’s official channel lost about 30,000 subscribers from 1.65 million on Oct. 11 to 1.62 million on Oct. 16.
RIIZE debuted in September 2023 with seven members: Seunghan, Shotaro, Eunseok, Anton, Sungchan, Wonbin and Sohee.