Netizens Allege BTS’s Jimin Breaks “Embarrassing” Spotify Record With Severe Accusations
BTS‘s Jimin is at the center of controversy after his 2024 solo single “Who” has lost over 175 million Spotify streams, a figure many are calling a first in the platform’s history.
A viral post on Korean community site TheQoo — and many viral posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) — claim “Who” is the first song on Spotify to be hit with a deduction of this scale, with monthly drops adding up to a total loss of 175.8 million streams between November 30, 2024, and May 1, 2025.
"Who" by Jimin becomes the first song in Spotify's history to lose 176M streams. pic.twitter.com/Vvc0RpmLL9
— Chlοé 🎀 (@x1989popbible) May 2, 2025
The most significant single-month drop occurred between January 31 and February 1, when WHO lost over 52 million streams.
The viral news has revived ongoing accusations of inflated or manipulated streaming numbers. Since “Who” began breaking Spotify records shortly after its release, many netizens have expressed doubt over the song’s popularity, suggesting that the streaming numbers don’t match the public interest.
1.6B streams and never met a person who has listened to this fraudulent.
— Lilac (@LilacHeave9) May 2, 2025
While Spotify has not officially commented on the matter, sudden and repeated stream drops of this scale typically raise red flags. Netizens are now questioning whether some of the song’s success was artificially boosted — possibly through mass streaming or automated systems, often called “bot streaming.”
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Korean netizens have also reacted strongly, with some expressing disbelief and others criticizing the potential damage to BTS’s reputation.
- “Did they really use bots and get the streams deducted?”
- “What song is it?”
- “Isn’t it streaming, not bots?”
- “Ugh, how embarrassing lol”
- “Does BTS even use bots?”
- “What’s going on?”
- “What a total embarrassment… they’re still doing this?”
