Thousands of people signed government petition asking death penalty of singer Lee Hong-gi after the artist aroused controversy on social media.

On May 23, a total of five petitions mentioning Lee Hong-gi were listed on the governmental petition board. Each petition demanded punishment for the artist or asked to take down such petitions.

It was earlier this week when the singer aroused controversy for allegedly being a regular viewer of controversial Internet TV host BJ Chulgoo, as well as for responding to such accusations with an unprofessional attitude.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjB_ngHBS0y/?taken-by=skullhong12

Triggered by his attitude, a number of people criticized Lee Hong-gi even more. One of them even created a governmental petition titled, “I petition for a death penalty of Hong-gi.” The petition has now been taken down after earning supports from thousands of backers.

Previously, singer and actress Bae Suzy was also involved in a similar happening. On May 17, Suzy expressed her support for a sex crime victim by sharing a screenshot showing that she has signed a related petition. However, as the mentioned assailant has turned out to be innocent, several people criticized the artist for sharing false information.

The anger was continued and one of them even petitioned for a death penalty of the artist. As the mentioned sex crime is closely related to feminism and gender issues, people assume that it is an anti-feminist who created the online petition.

As the cases of Lee Hong-gi and Suzy happened only a few days apart, many pointed out how they juxtapose sexism in the K-pop industry. While the female artist had to apologize for what she hasn’t done wrong, the male artist expressed his anger about accusations rather openly.

In the context of such argument, the death petition for Lee Hong-gi is understood as a feminist group’s “mirroring” of that for Suzy. Meanwhile, a vast majority of people is criticizing both petitions for using government petition board as a joke.

By Heewon Kim