Is It a Crime to Like a Female Streamer? ... Kim Je-deok, 'Archery Gold' Medalist, Faces Flood of Malicious Comments

After the sudden follow was revealed... "Je-deok-kung-ya, I'm disappointed"

Kim Je-deok (left) and Cho Dan.

Kim Je-deok, who won the gold medal in the men's team archery event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, faced a flood of malicious comments from some netizens after following the famous influencer Chodan (pictured right) on Instagram. Recently, posts about Kim Je-deok following Chodan have been spreading mainly across various online communities.

Chodan is a figure who gained fame as a 'female cam BJ' on Twitch. As a result, some members of female-majority communities criticized Kim Je-deok, saying, "How could he publicly follow a BJ with revealing outfits?" and "He must enjoy watching female cams," pointing out that following Chodan was reckless.

In particular, criticism continued regarding Kim Je-deok liking a specific post by Chodan.

The post Kim Je-deok liked showed Chodan wearing a cropped short-sleeve T-shirt and white bikini panties, revealing her legs. The bikini panties in question were a product many women wore during the body profile trend.

Some netizens reacted with comments such as, "Seeing Kim Je-deok follow Chodan and like a photo where she’s only wearing panties made me think he’s just another typical Korean man," "A current national representative is shameless," "Practice archery more instead of watching Chodan," "I’m disappointed in Je-deok who seemed pure," "Wow, my affection just dropped," and "Was it something you couldn’t just ignore?"

However, the majority of netizens defended Kim Je-deok, saying things like, "Is following Chodan really wrong?", "Maybe he liked it by mistake or they know each other," "People complain about everything," "Je-deok is human too, he can like influencers," and "I’m tired of the female-majority community’s constant controversies."

This so-called 'follow controversy' is not the first of its kind. Broadcaster and former announcer Jang Sung-kyu also issued an apology in 2019 after it was revealed he followed the famous influencer Ottomom.

Meanwhile, on the 30th of last month, Kim Je-deok won his third Olympic gold medal by defeating France 5-1 in the men's team archery event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the individual event held on the 4th.