South Korean court sues social media user for defaming virtual K-Pop band Plave

A court in South Korea has ordered someone to pay out 500,000 won (£265) for defaming a virtual K-Pop band.

The band in question is Plave, which is formed of five members – each voiced and animated by real, anonymous performers through motion-capture technology.

They formed in 2023, and went on to become one of the most popular virtual K-Pop stars around, garnering over a million followers on YouTube. Their song ‘Way 4 Love’ was also up for two awards at last year’s MAMA Awards – the biggest music award ceremony in South Korea – nominated for Best Vocal Performance and Song Of The Year.

In 2024, the agency representing the group filed a civil suit against a person who was making derogatory comments about the group on social media.

These comments contained some profanity, and as reported by the BBC, included comments claiming that the people behind the avatars “could be ugly in real life” and gave off a “typical Korean man vibe”.

After being hit with the lawsuit, the person behind the comments claimed that they were aiming their critique at the fictional characters in the group, not the real life people behind the avatars.

The ruling by the court was handed down in May and made public this month. It ordered the defendant to pay out 500,000 won (£265) for defamation, and rejected the claims that the comments were only targeting the fictional characters.

It said that if the avatar was recognised to represent a real person, then attacks on the fictional character also extended to the person behind it.

While the court ordered the person to pay out 100,000 won (£53) per person, Vlast – the agency behind Plave – had originally pushed for 6.5 million won (£3,450) for each of the five avatars, claiming that the comments had caused emotional distress.

The sum offered by the court was decided after looking at the severity of the comments and the circumstances surrounding the incident. Vlast appealed the damages outlined by the court, and said that the case set a precedent for defamation towards virtual avatars.

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