Multiple Korean Music Streaming Platforms Face Criticism For Not Removing Racial Slurs From Their Lyrics Section

These platforms need to become more aware.

Following girl group TRI.BE‘s racial slur controversy, it has been called to K-Pop platform users attention that multiple Korean music streaming platforms have not removed racial slurs from their lyrics section.

In TRI.BE’s official apology, they explained that Soeun practiced the song using the Korean music platform lyrics, which showed that racial slurs were not removed from the lyrics on these platforms.

Taking a look at some of the major Korean music platforms, we can see that Naver’s Vibe is the only platform that has revised the racial slur portion from the lyrics.

| screenshot capture from @tribedafeliz/Twitter
| screenshot capture from @tribedafeliz/Twitter
| screenshot capture from @tribedafeliz/Twitter
| screenshot capture from @tribedafeliz/Twitter

In contrast, other media platforms censor racial slurs in the lyrics section, even if it’s the explicit version of the song.

Apple Music censors the lyrics even though it is the clean version of the song.

| Apple Music

For Spotify, they skip the word completely from the lyrics section.

| Spotify

Music platform users are wondering why these Korean companies continue to keep these versions of the song up instead of revising it accordingly. They feel that these types of situations only contribute to the racism that comes from K-Pop idols.

Netizens hope that these music platforms will make the necessary changes in order to prevent more controversies from happening.

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