The legal battle of the fandom of "ProduceX101" and CJ ENM has started.

On August 2, Sports Chosun had an exclusive interview with lawyer Kim Jong Hwi - the legal representative in charge of prosecuting of "ProduceX101"'s Truth Clarification Committee. Regarding "ProduceX101" incident this time, lawyer Kim Jong Hwi replied, "This has never happened before."

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He said, "If this is a legal issue due to the normal fee-paying message, then the case will be similar to acts of fraudulent charges for using information. To my knowledge, there is no representative legal example regarding 'vote via charging messages' like this. Moreover, there has never been a precedent in the case of the incident developing to the suspicion over 'rigging on the broadcast' and being brought to trial."

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260 people of the "ProduceX101" viewers gathered to make this lawsuit. Until now, it has collected 378 people who sent voting messages and among them, 299 have agreed to the call. These are the people who participated in the paying vote to select debuted trainees in the group X1 at the final episode of "ProduceX101" (Mnet) on July 19. At that time, the number of votes from 1st to 20th rank was a multiple of a special constant 7,494.442 and the difference of 29,978 votes appeared repeatedly 5 times, thereby raising the doubt.

Lawyer Kim Jong Hwi criticized Mnet's dishonest initial response. Finally, this controversy is getting bigger and the reason for provoking the audience's wrath is the TV station's sarcastic explaining attitude when they changed their stance to "At first we didn't know, it was partly our fault, but the results have no problem".

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"When considering the legal situation for the first time, I realized the key point about the 'suspicion of vote manipulation'. However, I thought 'Is this really an intentional mistake? But why did they fabricate a case which could become such a big problem?' I assumed that this is not simply because of the viewership ratings. Although in the beginning, I thought that the management company of trainees are those who would suffer, there is also a high possibility that some companies are complicit in this incident."

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According to Mnet's admission that there was a mistake in calculating, fans are requesting to publicize the original data. Parliamentarian Ha Tae Kyung of the Bareunmirae Party supported this. Eventually, Mnet delegated the investigation to the investigation agency. On July 31, the cyber investigation team of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency carried out a raid on the company saving the SMS voting data and the office of "ProduceX101" production crew at the headquarters of CJ ENM in Sangam Ward, Seoul.

Lawyer Kim Jong Hwi emphasized, "There is clearly a civil limitation. The amount of damage is not great, and it is difficult to obtain evidence without a formal investigation. The TV station has a public obligation. It is an obligation of disclosing transparently the results of the votes through paid messages."

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"This is a public interest lawsuit for the viewers' rights to know. I have received the minimum fee. If the nature of this incident is investigated correctly, cases like this will not re-occur. Finally, I think it all depends on the will of the investigation agency."

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Lawyer Kim Jong Hwi expressed his sympathy for senator Ha Tae Kyung - who considers "ProduceX101"'s vote manipulation controversy as employment fraud and illicit recruitment against the youth.

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"TV station is TV station, the audience is the audience, we need to be vigilant not to let such things happen again. In addition, if this case is concluded that there is indeed manipulation, it is necessary to improve the system to prevent a recurrence. That's what council members will do, and I will focus on this trial."

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With the position of Mnet's "Survival Crucible", "Produce 101" - the program that calls the audience "National producers", the National Audition program that has come to season 4 - is now in danger of being shaken. Even the scheduled debut on August 27 at Gocheok Sky Dome of the group debuted in "ProduceX101" - X1 is also at risk. The public is very curious about whether these legal struggles will clarify all the suspicions.

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Sports Chosun = Kim Young Rok lunarfly@sportschosun.com

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