In a surprising turn of events amid the ongoing HYBE vs. Min Hee Jin controversy, BTS’ Jungkook left the K-pop fandom buzzing after offering apparent support to the members of NewJeans.
On September 14, the youngest BTS member subtly expressed solidarity with the girl group through an Instagram post on his dog Bam’s account. He captioned the post, “Artists are not guilty,” accompanied by a new photo of Bam. This simple message caused a stir online, with fans noticing additional symbolic details in the post. Along with the caption, Jungkook used five heart emojis and a flexed bicep emoji.
The colored heart emojis seemed to correspond to the members of NewJeans, who often use similar emojis to represent themselves. Fans quickly interpreted the post as a sign that the ‘Golden’ singer was standing by the young artists, who are also under the ADOR label, a subsidiary of HYBE (formerly BIGHIT Entertainment), home to BTS.
Jungkook’s post sparked widespread debate, with some applauding his gesture, while others speculated that his Instagram account had been hacked by NewJeans’ fans, known as Bunnies.
One fan commented, “Jungkook has been in the industry since he was 13. If anyone’s going to support young artists, it’s him.” Others were skeptical, noting that Jungkook rarely uses English captions in his posts. “This could’ve been hacked by Bunnies. The number of emojis and the English caption feel off,” another fan speculated.
Hours later, a second post featuring Bam appeared on the same account with the caption, “Don’t use them,” which many took as another reference to NewJeans being caught in the middle of the ongoing legal conflict between HYBE and former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin.
Despite some fans insisting that Jungkook’s account was compromised, others countered by pointing out that he may have chosen to post his support on Bam’s Instagram to avoid potential censorship on Weverse, a fan platform monitored by HYBE staff. “If he was hacked, he would’ve cleared it up by now—it’s been five hours. Respect Jungkook, he’s allowed to have his own opinion!” one netizen argued.
In response to the growing discussion, BigHit Music, Jungkook’s agency, issued an official statement addressing the situation. According to South Korean media, the company confirmed that Jungkook’s posts were intentional and stated, “We confirmed (with Jungkook) that the post was made out of concern that young artists should not be drawn into disputes or used as shields in any situation.”
