Latest news with #RobinHood-like
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
K-Pop fan club 'Team Bunnyz' raise 51 Million to fight against online trolls targetting idols; land into legal trouble
According to Yonhap News Agency, a group of anonymous fans who call themselves "Team Bunnyz" decided to take matters into their own hands when they saw their favourite K-pop group being cyberbullied online. Their solution? Launch a fundraising campaign to hire lawyers and fight back against online trolls. Sounds noble, right? Well, not quite. In just 8 hours, these mysterious supporters managed to raise an eye-watering Rs 4.2 crores (51.22 million Korean won) through a simple social media post. However, they forgot one tiny detail - to register their fundraising campaign with authorities, as required by Korean law. When Fan Love Meets Legal Reality The Seoul Jongam Police Station recently forwarded a Team Bunnyz representative, identified only as "Mr. A," to prosecutors for violating Korea's donation laws. Under Korean legislation, any organization collecting more than Rs 82 lakhs (10 million won) in donations must register with relevant authorities beforehand. The penalty for skipping this step? Up to 3 years in prison or fines reaching Rs 2.46 crores (30 million won). by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like If You Speak English, You Might be Eligible for Online MBA Courses in USA MBA Courses in USA | Search Ads Undo The whole controversy started when a concerned netizen filed a complaint through Korea's national petition system, arguing that the fundraising was illegal. After checking with Seoul city authorities, they discovered that Team Bunnyz had indeed failed to file the necessary paperwork before launching their campaign. What makes this story even more intriguing is how Team Bunnyz operates like digital-age vigilantes. They describe themselves as "professional experts from various fields including law, media, finance, culture, and arts who support the girl group". Yet, nobody has ever seen their faces at public events - they truly live up to their comparison to Robin Hood-like figures. The Puppet Masters Team Bunnyz isn't just any random fan group - they've positioned themselves as power players in the K-pop industry's most dramatic corporate battle. The group's former creative director, Min Hee-jin, even publicly thanked them during a corporate event, saying they "appeared like Robin Hood" to help her during difficult times. But their activities have raised eyebrows even within the official fanbase community. Some legitimate fans felt compelled to clarify to the entertainment company that "Team Bunnyz doesn't represent the entire fandom's opinion". This internal conflict highlights how passionate K-pop fandoms can sometimes splinter when unofficial groups take extreme actions. Their controversial activities extend beyond fundraising. Team Bunnyz was involved in organising a pop-up store event for an instant noodle brand that the girl group endorses, collecting personal information including names, phone numbers, and email addresses from fans - another privacy concern that sparked debate. When Fandom Culture Clashes with Reality This incident reveals the complex dynamics of modern K-pop fandom culture, where passionate supporters sometimes cross legal and ethical boundaries in their enthusiasm to protect their idols. While the intention to combat cyberbullying is admirable, the execution showcased how even well-meaning fan activities can spiral into legal troubles when proper procedures aren't followed. The case also highlights the growing influence of organised fan groups in Korea's entertainment industry, where anonymous collectives can mobilise significant financial resources and legal action within hours. It's a phenomenon that would be unimaginable in most other entertainment markets globally. As this legal drama unfolds, it serves as a cautionary tale for fan communities worldwide: passion for your favourite artists should never override legal compliance and transparency. After all, the best way to support your idols is probably not by landing yourself in court!
France 24
13-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Jose Mujica: Uruguay's tractor-driving leftist icon
Dubbed the world's "poorest president" while in office from 2010 to 2015, Mujica eschewed the trappings of success, continuing to live on his small farm, with his wife and three-legged dog Manuela at his side. He transformed Uruguay, best known for football and cattle ranching, into an outpost of progressive politics on a continent plagued by corruption and strongman governments. A former guerrilla with a life story that read like a thriller, he was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in May 2024 and underwent aggressive radiation therapy. In January, he announced he was dying after the cancer spread to his liver, and his wife Lucia Topolansky said this week he was receiving palliative care. A few months ago, Mujica had summoned his last reserves to campaign for his political heir Yamandu Orsi, who was elected president in November. Orsi's win, Mujica told AFP in an interview after the vote, was "something of a reward for me at the end of my career." As president, he put Uruguay on the map by legalizing abortion and gay marriage, and by making it the first country in the world to allow recreational cannabis use in 2013. He was even honored with his own strain, "Mujica Gold," in 2015, despite considering marijuana a "dangerous addiction." Mujica -- who could wax lyrical about nature, consumerism and love -- attributed his simple life and philosophical musings to the 13 years he spent in prison for his role in a leftist rebel group. "We were imprisoned and alone, so to survive, we had to think and rethink a lot," he said in a Netflix documentary on his life. Without that experience, he said, he may have been more "frivolous." He was disappointed at the authoritarian drift of some left-wing governments in Latin America, accusing repressive leaders in Venezuela and Nicaragua of "messing things up." Flowers and gunfire Mujica, a descendant of Basque and Italian immigrants, was born in Montevideo on May 20, 1935 according to his identity document, although he claimed to be a year older. He was mostly raised by his mother, who he described as "a very tough lady," after the untimely death of his father, and grew flowers to sell at fairs to help bring in money. Farming was his first love, though he was passionate about politics. He got his start as a member of the conservative National Party, but in the mid-1960s joined the MLN-Tupamaros, an urban guerrilla group inspired by the Cuban revolution that sought to overthrow the state and bring about socialist change. The group carried out Robin Hood-like "expropriations," in Mujica's own words, like robbing banks to give to the poor, before escalating to kidnappings, bombings and assassinations. Mujica sustained several bullet wounds, was arrested four times and escaped twice from prison -- including in the audacious 1971 breakout of scores of inmates from Montevideo's Punta Carretas prison, now a swanky shopping mall. Recaptured in 1972, he served 13 years in jail, much of it in solitary confinement, during a time when Uruguay was under a military dictatorship. In 1985, he was pardoned and slowly entered politics, first as an MP and then as a senator. He served as minister of livestock, agriculture and fisheries in Uruguay's first left-wing government for three years before running for the presidency in 2009. Self-styled 'crazy old man' While beloved by many for his attempts as president to tackle poverty and to turn Uruguay into one of the world's most stable democracies, critics faulted Mujica for his failure to implement education reform and rein in government spending. He was known for his candid, sometimes less-than-diplomatic, remarks. A live microphone once caught him saying: "This old hag is worse than the one-eyed guy." It was a reference to ex-Argentine president Cristina Kirchner and her late husband and former president Nestor Kirchner, who had a lazy eye. After serving a single term as president, he was reelected to the Senate, but stepped down from active politics in 2020, due to the risks Covid-19 posed to his weakened immune system. He remained a key political figure, with his farm on the outskirts of Montevideo visited by a string of local and international leaders. In an August 2024 interview with The New York Times, he said he would like to be remembered as a "crazy old man." He is survived by his wife, a fellow ex-guerilla whom he married in 2005. He said his one regret in life was not having had children. Mujica had asked to be buried on his farm, under a tree he himself planted, alongside his dog Manuela, who died in 2018 at age 20. © 2025 AFP
