Court issues fines for abusive comments about G-Dragon
Several people who posted or spread abusive comments online about K-pop singer G-Dragon were fined after his agency filed more than 100 defamation complaints.
G-Dragon talks about AI and “entertech” during Innovate Korea 2025, held at the KAIST campus in Yuseong District, Daejeon, on April 9, 2025.
NEWS1
Several people who posted abusive comments about the singer G-Dragon have been fined, his agency Galaxy Corporation, said Tuesday. The penalties ran from 2 million won to 7 million won ($1,400 to $4,900).
The fines came as summary orders, a procedure that lets a court impose a penalty for a minor offense on the papers alone, without a full trial.
Galaxy Corporation filed complaints in February against more than 100 people accused of writing or spreading malicious posts about the singer. The charge was defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, sometimes referred to as the Network Act. The agency built its case on tips from fans and its own monitoring.
Several of those cases have since moved through the system.
“Many cases are currently being handled by investigative agencies and the courts, and in some of them the charges against the suspect were accepted and the case was referred to prosecutors or sent to criminal trial,” the agency said.
“The court issued summary orders against multiple defendants for fines ranging from 2 million won to 7 million won, and in separate cases prosecutors have requested summary orders for fines.”
The agency framed the outcome as a warning to anonymous accounts.
“This shows that even when someone writes a malicious post from an anonymous account, investigators can identify the writer and it can lead to real criminal punishment,” it said.
“We will hold those responsible to account to the end in the cases now underway, on the basis of evidence we have already secured, and we will move quickly on any illegal act newly confirmed from here on, including filing complaints.”
Galaxy Corporation said it continues to pursue legal action over defamation, the spread of false information, insult, malicious slander and violations of personality rights and privacy committed online, to protect G-Dragon's reputation and interests.
BY KIM EUN-BIN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
