Soloist Jeon Somi‘s TikTok is flooded with negative comments after a recent controversy.
Jeon Somi | THEBLACKLABEL
In October 2023, the worker-led union of Starbucks, which represents 9,000 employees, shared a post via X (formerly Twitter) stating they stand in solidarity with Palestine. Since October, over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, and over 2 million are suffering from severe hunger in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Palestine crisis.
Shortly after, Starbucks released multiple statements denouncing the union. Starbucks did not want to be associated with the union’s stance.
Starbucks wanted to stop the union from using its name and logo, saying the company had no official stance on the war and the union’s post might confuse customers. But many boycotters, like Blake, thought Starbucks should offer more support to the people of Gaza.
— AP News
| Starbucks | Starbucks
Starbucks sued their employees on October 18 for trademark infringement, claiming that the social media post in question angered customers, potentially damaging the company’s reputation.
| Starbucks | Starbucks
Yet, many customers started boycotting Starbucks as they felt it problematic to sue one’s employees, especially over a position on human rights. Consequently, Starbucks has lost $12 billion USD in market value and even faced store closure and bankruptcy in some locations since.
Many people do not understand but Boycott has caused Starbucks alone to lose $12 Billion and many of the Starbucks are being closed due to that.
Boycott works
Watch the video pic.twitter.com/UZk71GdPx1
— The Night Report (@The_NightReport) December 25, 2023
So, K-Pop fans were shocked when Somi began a makeup video with a sip out of a reusable Starbucks cup from the company’s 2023 holiday collection. The video went viral with 6.7M views at the time of writing, with the comment section filled with netizens calling her out.
Fans grew even more disappointed after a couple of days as Somi had not addressed the matter, knowing she is frequently online. Some Somi fan accounts even closed as they were disappointed in her.
staysomi is the biggest somi fanpage i know theyve been there throughout that zionist’s journey. i’m glad she’s smart, agak proud as an indo lmao. look at her statement too honestly a brave thing to say knowing there r almost 70k somungchi following her https://t.co/gB7OWKhCHn pic.twitter.com/RVUm7MVIXU
— eggy, 21, a barbie (@james_is__on) December 26, 2023
It was about a week later when Somi deleted the video featuring the Starbucks cup. She also briefly addressed it during a live broadcast while reading netizens’ comments.
#fyp #kpop #lilacloudy #kpopnews #kpopupdates #somi
♬ sonido original – nini aka lilac cloudy🪻
Now that the new year has started, Somi has become active on TikTok again. Her most recent video was a makeup video, like her previous controversial video.
친구들만날때 하는 메이컵 루틔인 🩷🩷🩷 Easy light make up look routine🩷
♬ 오리지널 사운드 – JEON SOMI – JEON SOMI
The new video has 1.5M views at the time of writing. The comment section was flooded with netizens referencing the Starbucks cup in her now-deleted video.
A few netizens defended Somi, encouraging people to be less judgemental.
Still, none of Somi’s new online content is free from netizens’ criticism regarding her past video.
