NAVER’s Streaming Service “NOW” Under Massive Fire For Allegedly “Shutting Down” Jay Park’s Biggest Fansites

“This is why I absolutely despise NAVER NOW…”

Since its successful launch back in August 2019, NAVER has been running its own live content streaming service called “NOW”.

| now.naver.com

This service, set out to provide a nonstop around-the-clock entertainment for Korean listeners, invites different K-Pop and Korean celebrity “hosts” on the platform to put out radio-show-like segments. Earlier this year, rapper Jay Park hosted his own “Broken GPS” series…

Jay Park on NAVER NOW’s “Broken GPS”. | @HiphopLE/Facebook

… and later appeared on a fellow rapper pH-1‘s “SOUL FOOD” series too. The alleged problem occurred when Jay Park’s Twitter fansites began sharing the official video links to these segments — from none other than NAVER NOW’s very own co-directing HiphopLE channel on YouTube.

A handful of Jay Park’s biggest, oldest, and best-known fansites — some of which Jay Park himself followed — ended up getting reported by NAVER NOW for “copyright violations” and had their accounts suspended for “breaking Twitter Rules“. The unexpected shut down had both the fansite owners and fans frustrated and disappointed.

A screenshot of Jay Park fansite’s tweet being withheld for sharing the official YouTube video link. | theqoo

Completely puzzled by why the video shares got them suspended, these fansites collectively confronted NAVER NOW. Only when the accounts demanded to know “how tweeting the official channel’s shareable links could be considered violating copyright rules“…

A Jay Park fansite with over 3.1K followers. | @theJ_Effect/Twitter

… NAVER NOW then admitted that “there has been a misunderstanding” and promised to “clear things up with Twitter” on their end.

Actual response from NAVER NOW. | theqoo

To answer your question,

As for the wrongfully suspended accounts, we are currently in the process of withdrawing the filed reports. Also, please note that the detailed updates of the process have been sent individually to the accounts which were used to submit the withdrawal requests.

Thank you,
NAVER NOW Representative

— NAVER NOW

Over the weeks of waiting, however, the fansites grew hopeless by the perpetual inaccessibility to their own accounts, which they have built with love and devotion for years. When they realized the slim chance of getting their accounts back, the fansites requested NAVER NOW for some sort of compensation — only to be entirely ignored.

A Jay Park fansite with over 6.7K followers. | @itsjaypark/Twitter

As this frustrating encounter with NAVER NOW began circulating online, Korean fans called out NAVER for being irresponsible.

  • “Wow, what the actual f*ck. I’m so pissed.”
  • “I hate NAVER NOW. I don’t know why they’re so pressed. And if they’re the ones who got the accounts suspended, they should be the ones working harder to get them back. Poor fans, they must feel super hopeless right now.”
  • “So what… It’s a trap, or something? Like they give you a YouTube video for sharing and then report you for sharing the video? F*cking as*holes. Go fight the actual copyright violations. Stop being petty over fansite accounts.”
  • “Making mistakes and doing absolutely nothing about it, huh? How professional. I don’t like them at all.”
  • “This is insane though, LMAO. What in the world are they doing?”

 

In fact, some other K-Pop idol and celebrity fans voiced similar experiences.

This is why I absolutely despise NAVER NOW. They’re KNOWN for doing this to everyone and anyone. My bias went on some of their shows… and when our named fansites shared the official YouTube videos, they all got suspended for copyright violations. LOOK, IF YOU DON’T WANT YOUR VIDEOS SHARED, DON’T PUT THEM ON YOUTUBE??? It’s that simple. Stop bullying the fans who are only trying to promote their favorites and learn how link sharing actually works. These dumb corporates, TSK.

— Fan

Meanwhile, some Twitter users who have had their accounts suspended before assured the discouraged fansites…

| Noblesse

… that “while it may be a long fight, Twitter does return accounts to owners with the data untouched when they eventually get around to it.

Source: THEQOO