Recently, V caused a stir among fans by releasing teasers for his upcoming song Winter Ahead, a collaboration with Park Hyo Shin. However, fans quickly noticed that HYBE had not made any effort to promote the BTS member’s new project.
Specifically, fans expressed frustration over the lack of posts or updates about V’s new music on HYBE-managed social media platforms. Despite this, V himself took the initiative to engage with posts sharing his teaser MV, leaving comments to thank fans—even while serving in the military.
This situation has fueled anger among V’s fans, who argue that rumors suggesting V preferred no promotional efforts from the company are false. Fans point out his active interaction with posts about his teaser as evidence of his interest in promotions.
As a result, many Korean netizens and V’s fans have urged the singer to leave HYBE once his contract ends. They claim that the artist has been treated unfairly in his solo activities. However, V is not the only BTS member who has reportedly experienced neglect in solo promotions by HYBE.
Adding to the controversy, fans recently noticed that several of V’s performance fancams had mysteriously disappeared from YouTube.
V, who holds numerous highly-viewed fancams—including the Boy With Luv performance, which surpassed 100 million views—became the center of attention as these videos were suddenly removed. Notably, official uploads by broadcasters remain intact, but fan-uploaded fancams, some with tens of millions of views, have vanished.
Fans speculate that HYBE is behind the takedowns, claiming copyright on these videos. This issue seems unique to V among BTS members, further aggravating his fanbase.
On the platform X (formerly Twitter), V’s fans rallied to trend hashtags demanding fair treatment for the idol.
In 2021, V was recognized as the only K-pop male idol with seven fancams surpassing 10 million views on YouTube—a record unmatched in the industry. He also holds the record for the most-viewed official and unofficial fancams on Facebook among K-pop male idols.
The disappearance of these high-viewership fancams has left fans both angry and disappointed, reigniting calls for HYBE to change its approach to supporting V’s solo career.
