Recently, V became the center of controversy regarding his support for McDonald's - a brand that is the target of a boycott campaign. It stems from past misunderstandings of this brand's branch in Israel.
Despite ARMYs' explanations and evidence to protect V from cyberattacks, criticism and slander against him continued to increase. The climax of the controversy was a viral picture on X with more than 2 million views, considering him as a devil.
In this situation, ARMYs were extremely indignant and accelerated the fιgнт against those who defamed V:
It has been more than 10 years since BTS debuted and for that time the group has faced false rumors, slander or become victims of cyberвυℓℓуing. Even members like V - who are temporarily suspending his activities to fulfill his military service - cannot escape being targeted by unnecessary controversies.
Specifically, on July 21, V shared a series of old photos on his Instagram, including a photo of a bag of McDonald's fries. Immediately after that, some netizens began to criticize him for supporting the brand that provides free food to the "Israeli army". Many negative comments or criticisms aimed at V such as: children of gaza are eating tree leaves while taehyung flaunts eating the brand that directly funds the starvation and k!ll!ng of these children, a new celebrity has been added to the my boycott list. Nothing is as important as the lives of the children there, i don’t believe his heart is bad but it’s unacceptable to be posting mcdonalds when they are being actively boycotted for funding gen0cide...
Not stopping there, the cyberвυℓℓуing aimed at V was pushed to its peak when many videos or images defaming him spread on social networks. In particular, there was a photo that attracted more than 2 million views (at the time the article was posted) with a negative meaning. The picture depicted a "devil's" hand holding a bag of bullet-shaped fries with the McDonald's logo. It is said to be recreating V's own photo and referring to him as "the bad guy".
The comment section of the post is also filled with negative comments, even offensive and cruel words. Not only receiving criticism, just 24 hours after this news was spread, V's Instagram account ℓσѕт more than 32 thousand followers. This number has continued to increase in recent days. It shows a heavy impact on V's reputation, making ARMYs extremely angry.
In response to this situation, fans have provided evidence and arguments to prove that V does not deserve to be involved in the controversy. Fans pointed out that the photos he posted were old and did not necessarily imply that he endorsed that brand. The photo of the fries was also not from a restaurant in Israel, so it cannot be attributed to any bias towards him.
Next, they argued that V is in the military and he may not even be aware of the recent boycotts. That's why he casually posted the photo without any purpose. Additionally, during the controversy last year, McDonald's Global and McDonald's franchisees in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, and Turkey issued statements αѕѕerting that they had nothing to do with the moves by the Israeli McDonald's franchisees. They even pledged to support the people of the Gaza Strip and donated a large sum of money to relief efforts afterward.
According to Reuters, a credible source informed that the Israeli franchisees is licensed and operates independently. The source said that it is usual for franchisees to support or serve the local community and they are not bound by the parent company.
From these arguments, ARMYs believe that a malicious public group has intentionally taken advantage of this to blame V and tarnish his image. ARMYs are currently using the hashtags #ALWAYS WITH KIM TAEHYUNG, #WELOVEYOUTAEHYUNG, #BORAHAETAEHYUNG, #WEPURPLEYOUTAEHYUNG, #WITHTAEHYUNGTILLTHEEND,... to push back the toxic hashtag. Along with that, under the viral post, ARMYs also left many comments defending and giving arguments in response:
- have you already drawn the idols that are profiting from the brands that support Israel or are you unable to do so since your art is so bad?
- Free palestine. I can swear that palestine doesn’t mean anything to you. You just hate Taehyung. You are so disgusting. We love you kim Taehyung always with you
- Delusional hypocrite people I found what is happening in your country. McDonald at Indonesia 24hrs open where is boycott? McDonald at ιи∂ια 24hrs open where is boycott? Clowns are saying people started to eat at McDonalds coz of taehyung makes me laugh. always with taehyung
- tae prob doesn't care nor is he worried abt that cuz hes always busy, yall need to calm down because not everyone is anyones side in this situation, u armies need to learn that not everyone cares abt a certain thing nor probably has info abt it. just let tae eat on peace.
- However, anyone with bare minimum research could know what McDonald's did immediately after that. But haters would never check.
- They are so stupid, my god, Tae is only sharing his moments, consuming a brand does not make him a person in favor of that conflict, if that were the case, screw half the world, you are no one to crucify him, you are a fan, know your place. It's a photo, it ain't stating no sнιт.
- Please stop. This photo is from early 2023, before all this disaster. We were all eating that at the time, and he posted it not for promotion but because the box was small.
- McDonald's has long stopped supporting Israel, and McDonald's in various countries operate independently. V's actions have no malicious intent
- girl woke up do you really think he knows about this being in military service???!! even people who aren’t don’t know
