IU, the multi-talented singer and actress, has taken legal action through a U.S. court to unmask the identities of her online detractors.
On Monday, Edam Entertainment, IU’s agency, informed News1 that they had filed a motion for discovery with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on July 15. This legal move aims to identify the individuals behind malicious posts targeting the star.
The agency claims that a single user, referred to as A, has published 52 false statements on social media platforms, tarnishing IU’s reputation.
Unable to pinpoint A’s identity, IU’s legal team has requested evidence disclosure from Meta to gather crucial information for an ongoing defamation lawsuit in South Korea.
According to reports, A has been spreading a wide array of damaging rumors about IU. These include accusations of plagiarism, false claims about her relationship with China, misleading statements about her international success, allegations of exploiting deceased individuals for publicity, accusations of media manipulation and public opinion control, and posts that inappropriately link her lyrics to national tragedies.
IU’s team is aggressively pursuing legal action against these malicious posts. In February, her agency announced plans to file criminal complaints and civil lawsuits against 96 individuals by 2025.
Recent legal developments have shown progress in IU’s favor. A court fined an individual 5 million KRW (about 3,400 USD) for spreading false espionage rumors about the artist. In another case, the court fully granted a 30 million KRW (about 20,400 USD) claim for mental distress against a person who made false plagiarism allegations on the platform X.
The agency also revealed ongoing investigations into a cyberbullying YouTube channel and efforts to identify users on the platform Threads through information disclosure requests to U.S. courts.