[theqoo] FANSITE MASTERS POSTED STATEMENTS REGARDING EXCESSIVE SECURITY RESPONSES AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AT BTS' OVERSEAS TOUR VENUES

bypannchoa September 10, 2026

 

Statement on Excessive Security
and Human Rights Violations
at BTS Overseas Tour Venues

During BTS’s overseas tour, we repeatedly experienced treatment at multiple venues that went far beyond being told to stop filming or being removed from the venue.

These were not isolated incidents involving one person or one venue. The same kinds of invasive searches, intimidation, humiliation, and violations of privacy occurred across multiple cities.

We can no longer dismiss what happened as individual incidents, which is why we have decided to speak out together.

1. Why We Are Speaking Out

We understand that professional cameras may violate venue policies. When we were told to stop filming, we did not resist. We handed over our cameras and memory cards and cooperated with being escorted out.

We are not objecting to being told to stop filming or being removed from the venue. We are speaking out about what happened afterward.

A filming policy does not justify invasive body searches, forced access to personal information, confiscation of personal property, humiliation, or threats.

2. Invasive Searches of Our Belongings and Bodies

Even after we had surrendered our cameras and memory cards, and even after searches of our bags found no additional equipment, security personnel continued searching through all of our belongings because they suspected we were hiding additional memory cards.

They even opened and inspected our sanitary pads one by one.
The searches then escalated to our bodies. Security personnel put their hands inside our pants pockets and swept across our groin areas. They pressed and touched our cleavage and bra bands and searched around our underarms.

We were made to place both hands against a wall while our shoulders were pressed down to prevent us from moving. We were also ordered to put our hands behind our heads while our entire bodies were searched.

We did not resist. We had already surrendered our equipment and agreed to leave. Yet we were physically restrained, touched in intimate areas, and treated like criminals.

3. Forced Access to Personal Information and Control Over Our Ability to Document What Happened

They forced us to unlock our phones and directly accessed and photographed our personal and identifying information, including information stored in wallet apps.

They also photographed our passports, identification cards, hotel key cards, and even credit cards—items that had nothing to do with removing us from the venue.

They repeatedly flashed cameras directly into our faces at such close range that it was difficult to keep our eyes open, photographed us, and forced us to remove our hats and outerwear.

The identifying information collected and photographed during this process was shared with venue staff without our consent. At the following day’s concert, some of us were prevented from entering based on that information. At later venues, some of us were removed by staff who recognized us even though we were not taking photos.

Coercive body searches, the collection, photographing, and sharing of personal information, and the confiscation of personal property cannot simply be dismissed as “excessive treatment.” These actions go beyond the scope of enforcing venue policies and may raise issues of legal liability under the applicable laws of the jurisdictions where the concerts took place.

Meanwhile, whenever we reached for our phones to document what was happening or ask those around us for help, they immediately intimidated us and stopped us. As a result, we were unable even to inform people we knew about what was happening.

They were free to look through concertgoers’ phones and personal information and photograph our faces as they pleased, while we—the people actually subjected to this treatment—were not even allowed to document what was happening to us or seek help from outside.

4. Confiscation of Personal Property, Mockery, and Threats

Even after all footage had been deleted, some of our personal memory cards—worth hundreds of dollars each—were confiscated and never returned.

Whenever we tried to object, we were met with even harsher intimidation and relentless pressure. As a result, we were unable to properly protest and could only hope that the situation would end as quickly as possible.

Some security personnel threatened to drop our expensive cameras on the ground, then laughed at and mocked us when they saw how frightened we were. They repeatedly told us that no matter which future concert we attended, they would find us and throw us out. They also laughed with other staff members and deliberately sang along loudly to songs playing in the venue.

Watching us become frightened and distressed, they laughed and appeared to enjoy it. At some point, enforcing the rules seemed to have turned into a game of humiliating and tormenting people.

Some security personnel also claimed to be police officers and repeatedly threatened us, saying that they “could arrest us,” “would send us to jail,” and “would have us deported from the country.” At the time, the security personnel making these threats were not even wearing police uniforms.

In fact, during the SPEAK YOURSELF tour, we experienced a similar situation in which we were stopped for taking photos and later encountered local police after venue staff reported us. However, the police explained that taking photos at a concert was not the kind of matter that warranted calling the police, and the situation ended easily without further issue.

Actual police officers did not even consider the matter serious enough to take further action. For venue security personnel to threaten concertgoers with arrest, jail, or even deportation, treating them like criminals over such conduct, is not reasonable enforcement of venue policy.

5. Fansite Activities and the Boundaries We Respect

Regardless of how people feel about fansites, we have clear boundaries that we do not cross.

We do not go to artists’ homes, hotels, restaurants, gyms, or other private spaces, nor do we follow private schedules.

We buy tickets and attend public concerts, where we document the moments we love.
During concerts, we also do not leave our seats to get closer to the artists, throw objects, or otherwise interfere with the viewing experience of those around us.

In fact, at most concerts, we have enjoyed the shows alongside other fans while being considerate of one another.

On the current tour, because of the 360-degree stage and extended stages reaching in multiple directions, the members’ movements are spread across different parts of the venue. Even from seats close to the stage, members on the opposite side may be impossible to see directly, and the screens do not show every member at the same time. As a result, we often miss moments we each wanted to see. Many fans are also unable to attend overseas concerts in person.

That is also why we go to these concerts and take photos and videos: to preserve the moments we witnessed more clearly and share with one another the moments someone else may have missed.

For us, this too is a joyful and meaningful part of being a fan, rooted in our love for the artists. We want to ask whether violating a filming policy at a concert we attended with those intentions really means we should have to endure this level of humiliation and suffering.

6. Basic Decency and Respect

In 2026, when awareness surrounding women’s bodies and human rights has changed significantly, we never imagined that several security personnel would surround a single female concertgoer at a venue, search even intimate areas of her body, and humiliate her.

What is even more shocking is that this happened repeatedly across multiple cities.

This forces us to ask whether Asian female fans are being treated as easier targets for this kind of excessive conduct.

Would security personnel have carried out body searches that included touching the groin and chest, and coercive checks and photographing of personal information, with the same lack of hesitation if the concertgoers had been of another race or gender?

Since our faces and identifying information have already been photographed and shared, we know that making this statement public may expose us to further repercussions, and we are prepared to accept that risk.

Even so, we are speaking out because we do not want this to happen again to another fan at another concert.

Someone has to say that this was wrong. Violating a filming policy does not give anyone the right to touch a concertgoer’s body without justification, access their personal information, take their property, humiliate them, or threaten them.

Nowhere on the tickets that cost us more than $1,000 did it say that we would have to endure human rights violations like these.

We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for the minimum level of respect and reasonable treatment we deserve as concertgoers.

original post: here

1. I think something similar happened a few years ago, too. Nothing's changed, it's still the same.

2. That is f*cking outrageous. Even if a white person had been in the exact same situation, carrying a camera and facing ejection, they would never have been treated like that

3. Seriously, instead of just making a public issue out of it, please just file a formal report. It's the same endless cycle every time: public outcry, followed by the agency's empty promises to prevent recurrence

4. Whenever I see posts like this, I think that first of all, you shouldn't do what you are told not to do

5. Hul, but these claims are so severe?... Are they insane?

6. At that point, they really ought to just report it... It's true that the hate towards HYBE stans is intense, but I've lost count of how many times I've seen them get treated like that, only to complain about it on Twitter instead of actually reporting it

7. Just file a lawsuit. Don't do the things that are against the rules. You don't need to look at content from those "fansite masters" to enjoy being a fan, it makes f*cking no difference. They act as if what they're doing is some kind of holy mission

8. The groin area... the cleavage...? Isn't that SH? Why are they taking photos of my ID and credit card?

9. If that's actually true, they should just file a complaint for SH instead of writing a public appeal, go ahead and sue

10. Why are they taking photos of their passport, ID, hotel key card, and credit card...?



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