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K-pop sensation and BTS member Kim Taehyung — popularly known by his stage name V — has come under fire for posting a picture holding McDonald’s fries with the fast-food chain’s logo prominently on display, despite global boycotts called for their connection to Israel.

McDonald’s has been subject to boycotts and protests since Alonyal — an Israeli company that locally operates the chain — announced after the October 7 attack by Palestinian group Hamas that it would be donating free meals to the Israeli military, Al Jazeera reported.

The backlash McDonald’s faced was so severe that in April it brought back its 30-year-old Israel franchise from Alonyal, taking back ownership of 225 outlets that employ more than 5,000 people.

The Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, an inherently non-violent movement that calls for the boycott of corporations “complicit in the oppression of Palestinians”, also lists McDonald’s as one of its boycott targets.

Amid ongoing Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip that has killed over 38,000 Palestinians, people are continuing to boycott brands mentioned by the BDS movement or that have ties, perceived or real, to Israel.

With millions actively boycotting, it came as a shock to the BTS fandom that V so brazenly posted a picture of himself holding McDonald’s fries between photographs of himself.

To make things even worse, the BTS ARMY, fans of the group, recalled that a Palestinian fan dug out a photo-card of V from the rubble and ruin caused by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and called his tactless post “wrong and immoral”.

According to X (formerly Twitter) users, the fan was later killed by the ongoing Israeli atrocities, which were “funded by the exact company he puts on his big a** platform”.

Longtime fans were “disappointed” and called out the boyband for their silence, with others stating that BTS “let go and will willingly ignore our voices”.

An X user shared a video of Palestinian children eating leaves from a tree due to a lack of edible food and blockades on aid, adding that V “flaunts eating the brand that directly funds the starvation and killing of these children”. Earlier this month, UN experts declared that famine had spread throughout the Gaza Strip, causing deaths of Palestinian children due to hunger and malnutrition.

Meanwhile, other BTS fans rallied behind V, with ‘Leave Taehyung alone’, ‘Dear V’ and ‘We Love You V’ all trending on Twitter. Pro-Palestine fans called for the ‘Stigma’ singer to be held accountable for his actions.

“He is not a child. Hold him accountable. I have never seen a more spineless fandom, truly,” a fan tweeted.

Another person highlighted that V “knows what he’s doing” because he added a seemingly random picture of the fries among a series of photographs of himself and “it didn’t even match with the other photos”.

Others wanted the singer to be held accountable and give an explanation. One netizen said it was “hypocrisy” that K-pop fans were often “at any opportunity to call out others”, but refused to do the same in this instance.

An X user also pointed out that V’s actions led to other people buying McDonald’s which made the problem apparent.

V alone has over 65 million followers on Instagram. This post, in a little over 24 hours, had amassed over nine million likes. BTS’ reach and impact are undeniably massive with millions of young, impressionable people following their every word. We’ve seen instances of fans buying out items that BTS members have been spotted using, let alone posting on their own pages.

It’s high time to hold celebrities accountable, and claims that V wasn’t ‘aware’ of the situation in Gaza just won’t cut it as major news outlets continue to cover the atrocities and many South Koreans protest in Seoul.

The excuse that K-pop celebrities cannot have open opinions about controversial topics can’t stand either. It’s one thing to stay silent and a completely different thing to so openly post a completely random picture of McDonald’s fries to an account with millions of followers.

Do better, V.