YouTuber '1G's day' Lee Won-ji shared an update after returning to activity.
On the 1st, Lee Won-ji uploaded several photos to her social account with the caption "breaking: lost 13 kilograms crazy".
The released photos captured Lee Won-ji's daily life. He appears to be running, seemingly for dieting. But the other photos all showed him eating bread or hamburgers, delivering a twist.
In response, a comment saying "oh right it's April Fools' Day" was posted, and Lee Won-ji admitted that the 13kg weight-loss claim was a lie, saying "It was wishful thinking...." He confessed, "I haven't even lost 1 kilogram yet."
However, after people who saw the post mistakenly believed Lee Won-ji had actually lost weight, Lee Won-ji posted an additional message explaining, "Isn't this obviously an April Fools' joke.."
Last November, Lee Won-ji faced public backlash over allegations of mistreating employees. He, who had operated the '1G's day' channel since 2016, had about 1.02 million subscribers at the time and was an active and popular travel YouTuber, but was criticized after it was revealed that the office where employees worked was a roughly 6-pyeong underground room without even a window.
When criticism poured in over the poor conditions, Lee Won-ji explained, "I was told the building that houses the office space seen in the video is a commercial building occupied by various businesses such as offices, beauty shops, restaurants and retail facilities, and that air circulation is achieved through the building's overall ventilation system. Therefore, we judged that the lack of a separate window would not pose a major problem and, after comprehensive consideration with other factors, decided to contract that location as our first office," adding, "Since it was our first office, there are many immature and lacking aspects. We will actively accept the opinions left and fill in the lacking parts and work hard to show you that we will develop in a better direction!"
But reactions remained cold despite Lee Won-ji's apology. Compared with Lee Won-ji's usual spending patterns, the inadequate employee welfare drew even more disappointment. Ultimately, Lee Won-ji said she would relocate the office and apologized several times, but the '1G's day' subscriber count still dropped rapidly to about 948,000.
Meanwhile, Lee Won-ji uploaded a new video on Feb. 2 and returned three months after the controversy, saying, "I took time to reflect on myself. I'm back on the road to travel. I will continue to bring you enjoyable travel videos." Since then, she has been actively updating her status through YouTube and social networks.
[photo] Lee Won-ji SNS
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