SEVENTEEN Fans Accused Of “Manipulating” Korean Chart Likes In Viral Post

SEVENTEEN’s latest album HAPPY BURSTDAY is already causing heated debate online, but not because of the music.

Released earlier today on May 26, the album features 16 tracks — the title track “THUNDER,” two B-sides, and solo songs for each of the 13 members. While fans have been celebrating the group’s creativity and effort, a growing controversy surrounding Melon’s “Like” feature has sparked debate among Korean netizens.

On the popular Korean forum TheQoo, a viral post raised concerns about the fairness of using Melon’s like count — or “hearts” — as a metric for measuring domestic fandom strength. The post points out that foreign fans, especially those in China, have found ways to give hearts on Melon without going through identity verification.

The loophole has raised eyebrows, particularly because SEVENTEEN member The8 currently has the most hearts on his solo song… even surpassing the album’s title track.

Foreign fans, especially from China, have figured out how to give hearts on Melon.

SEVENTEEN’s Chinese member The8 has the most hearts on his solo song — even more than the group’s actual title track. Streaming, on the other hand, can only be done with a verified account, so it’s a separate issue from the heart count being exploited!

— Viral post on TheQoo

In the comments, users pointed out that this isn’t a new issue, and that other groups with large Chinese fan bases face similar situations. Some also questioned whether the criticism was unfairly targeting SEVENTEEN.

• “The gap’s even bigger now lolol.”
• “Their fave is in that group, but they won’t even give a like to the group song, that’s insane lol.”
• “Why are people so unwilling to admit the heart count is being inflated by Chinese fans…? What’s going on…?”
• “All fandoms with big Chinese fanbases are like this lol. If you search on Weibo, they’ve even made detailed guides for it.”
• “Let’s be real, any idol with Chinese fans is going to have fans who buy accounts. It’s not like only SEVENTEEN has a Chinese member or Chinese fans. That’s ridiculous.”