EXO fans had enough.

On March 9th, two global EXO fanbases: EXOGlobal and EXO9FANBASE along with Chen's Korean fanbase CHENUNIV_net have uploaded an official statement announcing they are starting a fundraiser to file a third-party lawsuit against netizens who have been commenting constant hate and have been harassing Chen since the beginning of this year. They are also inviting EXO-L to send them PDF files of anyone who have done the same.

📣 We, @EXOGlobal, with @CHENUNIV_net & @EXO9FANBASE, will be filing a 3rd-party lawsuit against malicious commentors who have been harassing CHEN. We will be fundraising & collecting evidence in order to proceed with the lawsuit, and requesting your participation.@weareoneEXO pic.twitter.com/Ck51vSld2h — EXO GLOBAL [Hiatus] (@EXOGlobal) March 9, 2020

안녕하세요. 김종대학교입니다.



올해 1윌 이후, 첸에 대한 지속적인 비방과 도가 지나친 인신공격, 조롱으로 여러 커뮤니티에서 부정적인 여론을 조성 하고있는 악플러들에 대해 제3자 고발을 진행하려고 합니다.

고발 진행을 위한 모금과 악플 수집을 함께 진행하려하니 많은 참여를 부탁드립니다. pic.twitter.com/lheqiYGI4x — 사랑하는 그대에게, 김종대학교 (@CHENUNIV_net) March 9, 2020

We, with @CHENUNIV_net & @EXOGlobal, will be filing a 3rd-party lawsuit against the malicious commenters who have been harassing Chen since January. We will be fundraising & collecting evidence in order to proceed with the lawsuit, and ask for your participation. @weareoneEXO pic.twitter.com/3uqHtGAk9A — EXO-L OT9 GLOBAL FANBASE (@EXO9FANBASE) March 9, 2020

The fans, especially Chen's fans have welcomed this statement with a lot of happiness and encouraged everyone to send their PDF files to Chen's fanbase as they've been constantly sending files to SM about the situation with the EXO member but were met with silence.

This situation once again highlights an enormous issue of SM when it comes to protecting their artists from malicious comments. Normally, it is the job of the company to deal with netizens who are harassing their artists by suing them. Yet, when it comes to SM, they tend to stay silent or declare they will "sue" only to not move forward.

This is not the first time EXO fans have started a lawsuit on their own against malicious commenters. In 2017, the Korean fanbase of Chanyeol, yeolmaefarmcom had also filed a third-party lawsuit against netizens who had been threatening Chanyeol's family, created malicious rumors and even were harassing him sexually on the internet. They had collected these comments for two years before sending it to the authorities. Chanyeol was personally informed and decided to go ahead with the lawsuit, stating there would be no leniency.

It is quite disheartening to see fandoms having to do the job of the company because they rather let their artist be flooded with hate comments constantly and still get the money of the same persons who are harassing them than to protect their signed artists. When will SM finally do what they are supposed to as a company to protect their artists? Only time will tell us but changes must be done now in order for SM to truly show they care for their artist's well-being and not the money they could lose.