The mystery over the sudden disappearance of the majorly controversial YouTube channel Sojang has been resolved, as a result of an official statement released by Starship Entertainment on July 25 KST. 

Sojang was known by K-Pop fans both in Korea and overseas as a malicious YouTube channel creating and spreading numerous accounts of rumors, unconfirmed accusations, and fictitious stories for views. The malicious attacks, slander, and defamation against K-Pop artists and Korean entertainment figures went on unchecked for nearly 2 years. 

Then, in June of this year, the YouTube channel was suddenly "hacked", then deleted, for unknown reasons. Some days later, an individual claiming to be the owner of the channel stepped forward with a lengthy statement of apology for all of the damage they had done over the years. Notably, in this statement, the owner of Sojang singled out IVE member Jang Won Young by apologizing for causing her "mental suffering". 

Then, on July 25 KST, IVE's label Starship Entertainment released the following statement via its official SNS platforms, confirming that the agency was able to order the owner of Sojang to submit their personal information to the court in order to respond to various suspected accounts of malicious online crimes. 

You can read Starship's full statement, below. 

"Hello, this is Starship Entertainment.

We notify you regarding updates on the agency's legal action against the infringement of our artists' rights. 

Starship is continuously responding with strict legal action against all accounts of malicious slander, the spread of false rumors, content containing personal attacks, defamation of character, and malicious comments found online and on SNS. 

In October of 2022, the agency carried out civil complaints against chronic malicious commenters, resulting in sentences such as 6 months in prison, restriction on employment, and registration as sexual offenders. Since November of 2022, the agency has pursued civil and criminal lawsuits both in Korea and overseas against the YouTube channel Sojang (Tal-deok Camp) in consultation with LIWU Law Group (Lawyer Jung Kyung Seok). In May of 2023, the U.S. District Court for The Northern District of California issued a provision of information, which called on Google Headquarters located in the U.S. to seek and obtain relevant information regarding the owner of Sojang by July of 2023. However, coincidentally right around this time period, when Google issued a notice regarding the provision of information, Sojang was suddenly 'hacked' and all videos on the channel were deleted. The account itself was deleted subsequently, followed by the posting of an apology.

It is a well-known fact that Sojang severely defamed the members of IVE through the persistent spread of false rumors, thereby interfering in the business of our agency; the anonymous individual who claimed that they were the owner of Sojang on the online community Nate Pann also admitted to committing such acts. Notwithstanding the recent posting of a statement of apology or its authenticity and/or intent, Starship Entertainment intends on ensuring that this individual faces all civil and criminal consequences for the illegal activities of the past. 

The agency is currently working to obtain the personal information of not only Sojang, but numerous other 'cyber wreckers' rampaging online. While the agency has consistently pursued legal action against these 'cyber wreckers' in the past, such legal cases concluded without resolution due to an inability to obtain personal information about the criminals. Starship Entertainment has now taken action in consultation with LIWU Law Group to make the obtaining of such personal information possible, and thus, it is in the agency's interest to press forward and seek legal responsibility from these 'cyber wreckers'.

Finally, Starship Entertainment is operating a regular monitoring system in order to protect our agency's artists, their private lives, their character, and their rights. We intend on seeking all possible methods of legal action against any and all accounts of defamation and damages against our artists now and in the future.

As information sent by the fans has been of significant help in preparing for legal complaints, we ask that you continue to report suspicious activity. 

Thank you."

In light of Starship Entertainment's recent statement, many netizens are amazed with the tenacity of the agency to take its legal action to such great lengths.