“NewJeans Fandom’s 30,000-Person Petition” Inflated: One Person Could Submit Hundreds of Signatures
However, an investigation suggests that the actual number of people who signed may have been inflated, as duplicate signatures were allowed through an electronic link. Some individuals may have even submitted hundreds of signatures.
On March 14, Ten Asia obtained the Google Forms electronic link that Team Bunnies used during the petition signing period and tested the signing process. From late February until March 5, Team Bunnies collected signatures through this link, which was then submitted to the court handling ADOR‘s injunction application for the “preservation of agency status and prohibition of signing advertising contracts”. Although the petition has already been submitted to the court on March 12, the link remains active.
The electronic link allowed signers to choose between Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese, enabling both domestic and international fans to participate. The key issue, however, is that the link did not have any mechanism to prevent duplicate signatures. Google Forms provides an option to enable a duplicate submission prevention feature with a single click, but Team Bunnies chose not to activate it.
An investigation revealed that a single person could submit signatures in as little as 10 seconds. Even entering nonsensical names like “ㄱㄴㄷ” and birthdates such as March 13, 2025 (yesterday) was accepted. After submitting a signature, a confirmation message appeared, followed by a “Submit another response” button, which redirected the user to the initial form, allowing repeated submissions.
Aside from this international Google Forms, Team Bunnies also collected signatures through a separate Korean-language Google Forms and the electronic signing platform Glosign, both of which had duplicate submission prevention measures in place. However, the largest-scale link—intended for global users—did not include this function.
Industry insiders have raised concerns about the petition’s credibility. One entertainment official commented, “Inflating the number of signatories could be considered a form of public opinion manipulation. A petition in which countless unverifiable individuals participated holds questionable significance.“
