Fans of a young Chinese idol started a “war” with a top Chinese university of economics and law after a student of the university posted some negative comments about the idol on social media, which finally ended with apologies from fans and the idol.
Yu Shuxin, member of the girl band The 9, has been the target of controversy caused by her fans since Wednesday.
A netizen wrote something negative about Yu on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo on Monday, saying that her parents owed money, and the post enraged Yu’s fans.
Some fans searched for the personal information of the netizen and found she is student of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province. Then they threatened the netizen if she did not apologize and pin the apology for one year on Weibo, they would call the office of academic affairs of her university to complain.
Many fans began to send messages to the university’s official Sina Weibo account asking the student to be punished for damaging Yu’s reputation. They asked the school to publicly criticize her and even expel the student.
The university stood up for the student by posting a sentence from the book “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”. The campus newspaper of the university wrote on its Weibo account that “none of us should be sheep without a shepherd.”
Other netizens boycotted Yu’s fans saying they carried out cyber violence against the student.
“The student just pointed out a fact, and was attacked and her privacy was exposed. They condemned the student for cyberbullying, but what they did is real cyber bullying,” one netizen commented on Sina Weibo on Thursday.
Yu apologized writing “Sorry to everyone who has been disturbed,” on Sina Weibo. But some netizens didn’t buy it.
Yu’s fans also have apologized but some of her fans just apologized to the university for defaming the school, and were not sincere in apologizing to the student, which still dissatisfied many netizens.
Yu shuxin photo:VCG
