by Journalist Lee Minkyung from TenAsia
The hidden 6th member of NewJeans, 'Ban Heesoo,' vanished overnight. Ban Hee-soo has been a key figure capturing the daily lives of NewJeans. She was both part of NewJeans and a fan observing them. Although Ban Heesoo is not a real person, she played a role as a bridge that allowed fans to feel closer to NewJeans. Through Ban Heesoo's perspective, fans felt as though they became her, emotionally connecting them with NewJeans.
Now, Ban Heesoo has suddenly disappeared. All the videos she posted have been deleted, and the memories have vanished. Someone has erased Ban Heesoo. Who could the culprit be? And why did this happen?
The first 'suspect' is Shin Wooseok, the head of Studio Dolphiners, who was responsible for producing Ban Heesoo’s videos. He has access to the Ban Heesoo's YouTube account and the authority to delete her content. However, he claims it was not his decision. He argues that he was ordered by ADOR, NewJeans’ agency. In other words, ADOR requested the deletion of the videos due to copyright concerns, and he was merely complying with their request.
If Shin's claim is true, the real suspect is ADOR. ADOR holds the rights to NewJeans' content, meaning they have the authority to decide whether to delete related videos. However, ADOR also denies the allegations. They state that their deletion request was only for a single video: the 'ETA' Director's Cut (uncut version) posted on the Studio Dolphiners channel. ADOR saw that the Director's Cut video could be problematic as it was released without consultation with the advertisers. They argue that their request was unrelated to Ban Heesoo's channel and question why they are being blamed for deleting other videos.
Let's take a closer look. The way the request was made is crucial. According to Shin, ADOR instructed that videos with their copyrights could only be published on official accounts and not on third-party channels. He did not specify which videos should be deleted but did disclose the reason for deletion: ADOR's principle of not allowing NewJeans content to be uploaded elsewhere.
The issue lies in interpretation. ADOR cited 'copyright' as the reason for deleting the Director's Cut, but Shin expanded the scope of deletion based on this reason. In other words, Shin saw that the video on Ban Heesoo's channel could also be a problem according to the 'criteria' presented by ADOR. His question about whether Ban Heesoo’s channel should be deleted according to ADOR's standards suggests that he saw it as part of the removal criteria.
Then who is the culprit? Based on the facts revealed so far, this appears to be a case of miscommunication. ADOR failed to consider the possibility of the broad application of their deletion criteria. Even if they made the request in writing, they could have controlled the deletion scope through other means. However, they lacked detailed guidance in this area. Similarly, Shin could have conducted more thorough follow-up checks.
Shin, as a marketing expert, must have known better than anyone else that 'Ban Heesoo' was not just content but also a crucial link between NewJeans and their fans. If he had simply asked, "On this condition, does it mean we should delete Ban Hee-soo’s channel too?" Ban Heesoo might not have disappeared.
????? We're trying to find the culprit here, so why is there only one suspect?
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