A solemn review of what happened behind the scenes one year ago
(Translated from the blog
http://m.blog.daum.net/d00222a/629?np_nil_b=-1)
On July 31, 2018, a user with nickname 민트우유 posted this on Mnet DC gallery. DC (Digital Camera, historical reference dating back to 1999) gallery is a giant Korean community portal that has forums, also known as major or minor galleries for over 100 topics: individual celebrities, TV shows like Mnet, trains, traveling, and the latest hot issues, for example. Each forum is used not only for online discussions but also for promoting campaigns involving monetary transactions and reciprocal goodwill between two galleries. For music artists, this can manifest in ways of streaming (to increase view counts) or spamming certain keywords on search engines related to an individual, in order to improve his/her reputation.
Title: (letter of apology) I want to clear my filthy past
“Those who have been here a long time are fully aware that I was the quickest in posting the Mitama Matsuri controversy about Mako, Juri, and Miyu, as well as Jurina’s involvement with the Japanese Self-Defence Forces.
[The Mitama Matsuri is a festival associated with honoring the souls of the ancestors and the dead, hosted by the Yasukuni Shrine - known for accommodating the dead war criminals of World War 2.]
This branding of imperialistic right-wing images was done in order to remove potential obstacles to my picks from getting through. It was successful on those at Instiz (largely female-based online community in Korea), gullible enough to still bring up right-wing controversies about them.
In reality, the Mitama Matsuri’s background, history, and present significance have little connection to the right-wing agenda now. But by framing it as a “festival at Yasukuni Shrine”, many online communities stigmatized those members. Mako was eliminated, Jurina imploded by withdrawing from the program, and Juri is not likely to debut, lol.
You will see that most of the flaming controversies on multiple communities were forged by me. I have prepared a “right-wing concert” propaganda and its rebuttal and spread the materials even before Produce 48 started. After Produce 48 began, I released my refuting evidence so that Sakura and some other Japanese members could escape this accusation.
The reason I write this is that every controversy, rumor and abusive criticism you see nowadays is a devious tactic of pushing one’s own picks ahead of others. I am running multiple accounts. I work as a vice-manager for a potential locked-in member’s gallery, as well as another member in order to keep her in check. But she was eliminated anyway. I wonder if there are many others like me. Oh well, my picks are safe now.
I want to apologize about Nako and Miyu, although it was for my picks’ sake. If you read my old posts, I supported Nako before the first evaluation. I assumed that she would be eliminated quickly. But since then she became too popular to threaten my picks. So I had to keep an eye on her. Now I like her.
It is similar to Miyu. She was somehow popular in many communities. I aroused dissent by uploading ugly and poorly timed photos of her in the past and even managed to frame her as an alt-feminists’ pick. But it’s true that she has many female fans... If you go to her DC gallery, those middle-aged male fans are new to this world and too naïve. They couldn’t survive the propaganda against Miyu without refuting properly and have been run out. I sincerely regret my deeds after seeing her character and skills in Episode 7.
I will continue to support my non-Wuehua/Starship/Pledis picks, and those I mentioned above. I’m sorry.”
[This was obviously not genuine.]
민트우유 happened to be the manager for Takeuchi Miyu’s DC gallery! He held a Q&A session with close to 500 replies on Mnet DC gallery, as a different nickname 뮤조건. The original post was deleted and cannot be seen now, but 뮤조건 remains as the most infamous propagandist in the Produce series history. From what he wrote, and since then:
· He prepared materials in depth to arouse right-wing controversies about AKB members. If any Japanese member entered the top ranks during Produce 48 to threaten his picks, he would release these materials to eat away at their popularity. He used screenshots of the members’ SNS posts and appearances on media. He manipulated captions and the context in order to forge his propaganda.
· His posts concerning the AKB members who have been eliminated before the final episode were mostly deleted. Some record of his deeds remains on the DC galleries of the members who made it to the final episode.
· Miyu DC gallery members did not realize that their manager and 뮤조건 were the same person! And they proceeded to criticize other AKB members on DC galleries and online communities under his command.
· His picks have survived and debuted as IZ*ONE members. He managed to eliminate almost all AKB members whom he was campaigning against. There were only 2 AKB members who were not attacked by 뮤조건. There was a debate whether his number one pick was an AKB member or a Korean trainee. The blogger suggests that he wouldn’t have risked being attacked by all of the eliminated AKB members’ fans by setting his number one pick as a Japanese member.
Below are the cases either admitted by 뮤조건 or speculated to have been carried out by him.
Against Goto Moe:
During a Showroom (live broadcast platform for AKB members) session, Japanese fans asked her if she will be absent at a rank-in concert in Japan due to schedule conflicts with Produce 48.
Moe said, “No, I will be in Japan from Aug. 1. Please don’t be misled by rumors and wait for the official announcement.”
Then, Moe’s mother said, “The rumors are spreading to a degree of being an official announcement, but perhaps a Korean who knows Japanese may have interpreted it as official news.” Moe replied, “No, why would you believe that? Mom, don’t say that.”
Moe’s mother’s words were translated into Korean like this: “Don’t believe those rumors. Such rumors were forged by Koreans.” This version angered many Korean fans, and Moe was effectively eliminated.
Against Shiroma Miru:
Miru was purported to have unfollowed a former f(x) member Sulli on Instagram after Sulli uploaded a post about comfort women (women various regions in East Asia who were sexually exploited by the Japanese military in the 20th century). But Miru was known to clean up SNS follower/following lists regularly, and unfollowed Sulli’s account before the post about comfort women was uploaded. Even though Miru’s DC gallery posted refuting evidence, there were already multiple Korean news articles about Miru’s disapproval of Sulli that sealed her image as anti-Korean. Miru finished last in the final live episode of Produce 48 with large margins.
Against Yabuki Nako:
Right-wing accusations against Nako were too generic across all AKB members and were refuted by AKB Produce 48 participants’ DC gallery. Instead, 민트우유 attempted to create a negative reception of her based on her short stature, accusing fans of being lolicons. This was not very effective.
The two members below were attacked viciously, and lots of files remained.
Against Shitao Miu:
Born in Yamaguchi prefecture, Miu shared the birthplace of Ito Hirobumi, Japan’s first Prime Minister who has also had a leading role in the annexation of Korea in the early 20th century. Among Koreans, Hirobumi is the most notorious historical figure in Japan. This made her an easy target for 뮤조건. To add to her misfortune, Miu is a Team 8 member of AKB: a representative and ambassador of her local prefecture. In a televised event in Yamaguchi to commemorate the Meiji Restoration movement involving Hirobumi and other prominent individuals, she had to follow a script in answering the host’s questions. There, the video clip was edited into her allegedly saying “I respect Ito Hirobumi”.
Miu’s 755 posts on Oct. 6, 2017, showed a picture of Hirobumi’s hollow portrait on a large replica of a discontinued 1000-yen bill (for photo opportunities) at Ito Hirobumi’s memorial center, and her face was shown through the hollow space. Her writing of “You can use this tag: #IHateThisBill” was cropped out, and instead, an insinuation that Miu intentionally visited this memorial center was put in. The truth is that the memorial center happened to be on her way home from school. Yamaguchi is a highly rural area, and Miu commuted on foot often.
In a Showroom session where Miu was asked about noteworthy dishes or historical figures in Yamaguchi, she mentioned Hirobumi with knowledge based on her school textbook. She also added, “I don’t know much about him.” Later, one of her Japanese fans uploaded a photo of the textbook to explain her statements, where Hirobumi’s role in the annexation of Korea was not mentioned directly. But she was accused of whitewashing the role he played in causing severe hardships on Koreans during the last century.
Against Takeuchi Miyu:
Miyu’s tweet about wanting to attend the Mitama Matsuri (see above) for the first time in 2013 was made into propaganda. However, her image of pro-Korea and her ability to speak some Korean nullified this rhetoric. So 뮤조건changed tactics.
He was surprised to find that a majority of Miyu’s fans was males. Then he managed to build the reputation of Miyu’s fan demographics as alt-feministic by posting with different accounts on several female-based online communities, where such individuals would make radical, derogatory statements about Korean men. This he did to deter the general public from supporting her.
When Miyu’s rank dropped to 30 after the second evaluation, her fans were accused of having purchased using G-Market accounts to supply additional votes. 뮤조건 later clarified that Miyu’s DC gallery did not purchase G-Market accounts, but fans of other members did.
Being a rare Japanese Christian, Miyu was attacked by propaganda that Christian associations in Korea have called for massive support for missionary purposes. There the alleged number of potential individuals to lend support was grossly exaggerated from 316 to over 50,000. The rhetoric that she gained large support simply because of her religion was established, and this drew the anger of the irreligious.
Two members from Miyu’s DC gallery were shown to have edited Shitao Miu’s Namuwiki (Korean Wikipedia) article towards negative reception. This led to great animosity between Miyu’s DC gallery and Miu’s DC gallery. Likewise, with other AKB members’ DC galleries, 뮤조건 managed to isolate Miyu’s fans in this online community. As her gallery manager, he directed the gallery members to accuse, slander and sabotage other Produce 48 Japanese participants’ fanbase.
At the final evaluations, compensations to anyone for sending in online or text votes to their particular picks were ubiquitous. Miyu’s DC gallery also launched an event to solicit votes from ordinary people, who were not really invested in Produce 48. They would hold a lottery for the voters, and the lucky few would receive high-end prizes including a UHD TV, MacBook, laptop, Playstation, etc. which surpassed $10,000 USD in value. But 뮤조건 aroused a number of skeptics based on the costs of the prize items and the apparent size of Miyu’s fandom. His group managed to establish her gallery management as scammers.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. About 40 pages worth of deeds by 뮤조건 and his aliases, tracked by a sharp community investigator remain here (in Korean):
http://gall.dcinside.com/m/mnet_k/2940094
http://gall.dcinside.com/m/mnet_k/2940280
http://gall.dcinside.com/m/mnet_k/2943561
Based on circumstantial evidence, he was initially campaigning to put Murakawa Bibian into IZ*ONE. After she was eliminated, out of frustration he proceeded to ruin the entire Produce 48 landscape by pitting one AKB member’s fandom against another with propaganda and slander using different aliases, up to 11 in order to sway the public opinion. He used his own accounts to support or refute his own writing and even banned his own aliases in order to avoid suspicion. The language used in his posts to insult the members is highly vulgar and derogatory, not recommended for translation.
As a parting shot after the announcement of IZ*ONE members, he claimed to be a Jo Yuri fan. This was an obvious “fan cosplay” tactic to direct the anger of the eliminated members’ fans towards Yuri. He was a clear psychopath but was also able to sway thousands, if not tens of thousands of people online.
