Netizens Terrified By Videos of K-Pop Fans Being Assaulted At The “40th Golden Disc Awards”
On January 10, 2026 (local time), both artists and fans alike celebrated another solid year in K-Pop at the “40th Golden Disc Awards” (GDAs) in Taipei…
…except some who fell victim to what is now being dubbed an excessive use of force by the venue’s security guards.
In videos that have now gone viral, security guards at the GDAs are seen getting violent with fans in the audience who have large cameras.
While fans largely agreed that fansites using prohibited large cameras should have been removed, the level of violence used in the process left many deeply disturbed.
- “Well, if they tell you not to use a big camera, then don’t. When people keep doing it anyway, of course the rules are going to get stricter.”
- “Wow… I mean, I agree that fansites do seriously disrupt concerts and events sometimes, but this kind of violence is not okay.”
- “If they were going to enforce it like that, shouldn’t they have just banned bringing cameras in from the start?”
- “Wow, that’s extreme.”
- “How much damage does some photographing even cause for them to react like that? How is violence ever justified? I don’t get why people are defending this.”
- “There’s a limit to everything. In Korea, have you ever seen police beat someone up just for committing a minor offense? That doesn’t mean the person filming was right, but people are acting unhinged with the hate.”
- “If you’re told not to do something, don’t do it.”
- “Those security guards are not even the police. How does it make sense for them to restrain people like that? The point is that the violence was excessive, but people are calling fansites ‘deserving of it,’ which is ridiculous.”
- “People get high on feeling righteous, angry about rule-breaking, but somehow ignore the fact that they’re using violence even the police wouldn’t use. Who’s actually defending that?”
- “What the heck is going on…?!”
Hundreds of comments across online communities, like theqoo, are voicing concern at how K-Pop fans are being assaulted at a K-Pop event.
- “That’s lawsuit-worthy.”
- “Was that really necessary? Not even criminals would be treated like that.”
- “Just let them take the damn photos. What is the actual reason for stopping them?”
- “Are they the police or something? They could’ve just escorted them out. What right do they have to act like that?”
- “They should’ve blocked them at the entrance in the first place. What is this mess?”
- “I don’t really get why filming is banned, but I would assume they gave several warnings and the person ignored them and kept filming. If they’d just stopped a few times and read the room, nothing probably would’ve happened.”
- “This wasn’t even a pre-recording, it was live, right? Is there really a reason to violently seize someone’s big camera like that? These days even concerts allow filming; this is way too much.”
- “People defending this are out of their minds.”
- “If they were just grabbing everyone without warning, that’d be one thing. But if you look at Threads, there are tons of other people also secretly filming with telephoto lenses and laughing while watching them get caught. That mentality is gross.”
- “Does that actually make any sense? Isn’t this legally problematic?”
- “If this happened in the US, it’d absolutely be grounds for a lawsuit.”
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