One month before the 26th birthday of Park Ji-min, a member of the South Korean boy band BTS known as Jimin, his fans in China pooled money to plaster his photographs and a declaration of their "eternal love” on the exterior of an airplane.
As pictures of the customized Jeju Air plane circulated widely in China last week, Weibo, a Chinese microblogging platform, took notice. It accused the fan account of "illegal fundraising,” and Sunday it banned the page from posting on the site for 60 days.
Weibo did not stop there. Hours later, the social media platform said it would also suspend 21 other K-pop fan accounts for a month, including those that worship other BTS members; the girl group Blackpink; and EXO, a band with Chinese members, after receiving complaints.