BIGHIT MUSIC In Hot Waters Over Latest Notice About BTS J-Hope’s Cancelled US Schedule

BIGHIT MUSIC In Hot Waters Over Latest Notice About BTS J-Hope’s Cancelled US Schedule

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The company is being called out for refusing to acknowledge the reason behind the cancellation.

On March 12, KST, BIGHIT MUSIC published a notice on its social media accounts stating that BTS member J-Hope‘s upcoming US schedule has been canceled.

BTS’s J-Hope | Weverse Magazine

The notice stated that the content, which was scheduled to be released on March 13 after filming in the US, had to be canceled “due to unavoidable local circumstances.”

Fans took the cancellation itself sportingly, agreeing to prioritize the safety of J-Hope and his crew. But many were also enraged that BIGHIT refused to acknowledge the actual situation.

The “local circumstances,” as many fans pointed out, refer to the ongoing protests in New York against the government’s unlawful detention of Mahmoud Khalil, an American citizen and a Columbia University student. The DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detained Khalil for participating in the student encampment last year in protest of the Israeli onslaught of Palestinian civilians.

Khalil, who is an American citizen with a green card, has been arrested and faces the threat of deportation despite not breaking any law. Prominent opposition politicians have condemned his arrest as unlawful, while regular citizens have taken to the streets, demanding his release.

Fans have criticized BIGHIT’s decision to leave out this context in their post, which starkly contrasts with their mentioning of the L.A. wildfires in a similar cancellation notice they had posted previously.

Some, however, reasoned that the company was trying to maintain neutrality and avoid political discourse in their notice. Others hoped that the notice would spark fans who were unfamiliar with the situation to educate themselves.

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