SM Entertainment Gets US Court Approval to Seek Seunghan Fan Account Identities — but No Names Are Public

SM Entertainment has received approval from a US federal court to pursue information identifying the operators of two anonymous X accounts linked to campaigns supporting former RIIZE member Seunghan. But despite headlines suggesting the accounts have been unmasked, the people behind them have not been publicly identified. According to Korean reporting published October 16, a Texas court approved a request for discovery on October 14, allowing SM to pursue information from X Corp. The development has renewed attention on Seunghan's departure and a difficult question for K-pop fandoms: where does organized criticism of an entertainment agency end, and where might conduct that interferes with its operations begin?South Korea's Sisa Journal reported that SM filed its US discovery application on October 5, nine days before the US District Court for the Western District of Texas approved it. The request targeted two accounts whose handles were partially concealed in the reporting. Both were associated with campaigns seeking Seunghan's return to RIIZE, including boycotts, hashtag activity and criticism of the agency's handling of his departure. SM had previously pursued civil lawsuits inv...