IU. [Yonhap]
IU. [Yonhap]

Singer and actor IU has told a US court that her defamation lawsuit in South Korea could be dismissed if she is unable to identify the person behind a series of malicious online posts.

IU's US legal representative filed a declaration on Oct. 16 with the US District Court for the Northern District of California warning that "there is a risk the Korean lawsuit will be dismissed," according to industry sources cited by Sports Kyunghyang on Tuesday.

The filing explained that without identifying the author of the posts, IU's legal team cannot serve the complaint on the defendant in the Korean proceedings.

The declaration also raised the possibility that access records could disappear. The legal representative said IP addresses and login records may be deleted in the ordinary course of operations, warning that "the risk of losing the information the petitioner needs grows with every additional week of delay."

IU had sought on July 15 to compel Meta through US courts to hand over user information — including names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and IP addresses — to identify the account holder behind the posts.

IU's team said it has struggled to proceed with the lawsuit because the identity of the account holder, referred to as "A," has not been confirmed.

The team alleged that A published 52 posts between March and October last year containing malicious comments and false information that damaged IU's reputation.

IU filed a civil defamation lawsuit at the Seoul Central District Court on June 25 but turned to the US court for help after failing to identify the author. Concerns have since grown that continued delays in the US proceedings could affect the Korean case.

Meanwhile, IU pursued criminal complaints and civil lawsuits in 2023 against 96 internet users who spread various rumors, including claims that she was a spy.

Her agency, EDAM Entertainment, said the cases resulted in seven fines and one combined sentence of a fine and a mandatory sexual violence treatment program for those who had posted malicious content about IU, including the spy rumors.


min3654@heraldcorp.com