KUALA LUMPUR: Although the recent death of K-Pop idol Sulli came as a shock to everyone, in retrospect, the 25-year-old former member of girl group f(x) had seemingly called out for help via various avenues but unfortunately to no avail.
Koreaboo reported yesterday that during an interview with the Busan Report, an entertainment insider had revealed that Sulli was having a hard time dealing with the barrage of hateful comments targeted at her.
She had apparently informed her agency, SM Entertainment, many times before about the matter through her manager. Unfortunately, her constant appeal for the company to take a proper course of action in dealing with these comments were met with passive responses.
SM Entertainment had stated last year that it would be taking appropriate action with regards to malicious comments by Netizens.
Apparently, the company had later revealed that the IP address of the users were registered in a foreign country and only temporary made available which made it hard to search for them.
In the interview, the entertainment insider added that things might have turned out differently if they had been a bit more aggressive in finding the users while also taking care of their artiste’s mental well-being.
The person also said that the system needed to be adjusted so that the agencies did not just focus on the really popular artistes at the moment.
In an earlier report from Koreaboo, a close friend of Sulli, whose real name is Choi Jin-ri, revealed that the singer-songwriter and actress had been planning to leave her position as a co-host on Korean variety show Reply Night (a.k.a. The Night Of Hate Comments) since two months ago.
The friend let on that Sulli was experiencing severe mood swings and that her anxiety levels were progressively getting worse. “We were very worried about it (her condition),” said the friend.
The show, which is akin to Jimmy Kimmel's Celebrities Read Mean Tweets, follows the format where celebrity guests read and discuss their own social media comments.
In an episode earlier this month, Sulli apparently confessed that she had been feeling very “empty” in her life and that she had been “lying” to everyone by pretending to be happy.
She said: “My life is actually empty, so I feel like I’m lying to everyone by pretending to be happy on the outside. I asked around a lot for advice. They told me, ‘Everyone has a dark side in their lives but they live pretending that they don’t. Don’t think of it as weird’.”
The idol had opened up on multiple occasions about her depression and how she had to continually face malicious commenters.