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BTS band’s fan club shut down by Weibo as China intensifies crackdown on its entertainment sector

Photo by: BTS/Instagram

BTS, the world-famous South Korean boy band, has also been affected by China’s recent crackdown on its own entertainment business. It was reported that the country’s version of Twitter, Weibo, has shut down the band’s official fan club account.

BTS’ fan club’s page on Weibo was just one of the 21 accounts of Korean celebrities that were taken down by the Chinese social media platform. The removal of the pages is part of the country’s move to tighten its grip on its own entertainment and culture biz.

As per Yonhap News Agency, Weibo’s suspension of BTS’ fans’ account is only temporary, at least for now. A 30-day suspension was also imposed on the fan clubs of other popular Kpop bands including NCT, BLACKPINK members, Girls Generation members, IU and Red Velvet as of Monday, Sept. 6.

It was added that the platform also deleted a number of content that caused the suspension of the accounts. It was not specifically revealed what kind of content that was found to be offending to prompt the removal of the posts.

However, it was said that Weibo accused the affected accounts of illegally carrying out fundraising projects and stated that fans displayed “irrational star-chasing behavior that the platform is against of."

It was noted that BTS member Jimin’s individual fan club was also banned on Weibo after photos of a plane that bears his photo and name were circulated online. This was his Chinese fans’ project for his birthday and they raised money to be able to afford the customization of one Jeju Air aircraft. Fans have been preparing this for the star’s upcoming birthday next month.

With the extreme gift, fans were labeled to have exhibited irrational behaviors so the Chinese government has imposed measures to stop this. It recently announced a list of regulations to control fan club culture in the country and for people, especially the minors, to stop worshipping and spending lots of money to support their idols.

CNN Business reported that in keeping with the government’s crackdown on entertainment, Weibo stated that "firmly opposes such irrational star-chasing behavior and will deal with it seriously." It also vowed to regulate community order and promote better activities for its users.

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