DC Inside has issued a statement following a request by Kang Daniel’s legal representatives to close down the “Produce 101 Season 2” fan community on the site.

On December 16, Kang Daniel’s lawyers released a statement announcing that they have submitted an application to the Seoul Central District Court to request the closure of the community (known as a “gallery”).

They explained that there are millions of posts on the gallery and many of them contain libellous falsehoods, describing that the postings exceed the boundaries of normal freedom of expression. They wrote that as a result of these tens of thousands of posts that are uploaded daily on the gallery, Kang Daniel has declared a break in his entertainment career.

On December 17, DC Inside issued a statement as a response in which they lamented that the request was made. As the request was filed with the Seoul Central District Court, the site’s response does not mean the request will not be considered.

The statement is as follows:

Hello, this is DC Inside. We lament the fact that a request has been made that is unconstitutional in a country with freedom of expression. The request to close a gallery has no legal basis. Through monitoring of reports by users, DC Inside managers take 24-hour action including deletion and suspension when there is a problematic post. On DC Inside, there are users with various tendencies and opinions across over 30,000 galleries. Both fans and anti-fans are active on galleries for celebrities. Shutting down a specific gallery will not make anti-fans disappear, and it appears that this request will instead create even more anti-fans. This is the same as asking for Gwanghwamun to be removed because there are many protests in Gwanghwamun, and DC Inside has never, not even once, closed a gallery in its over 20 years of operation. We believe that rather than requesting a closure of the gallery, there is a need for a tolerance in which fans are embraced. Thank you.

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