An Yu-jin's deepfake photos are posted on the Chinese official social media of IVE's agency

Starship Entertainment has officially apologized for the deep-fake photo sharing incident of its artist An Yu-jin.

Starship Entertainment issued an apology on its official social media on Friday. The company apologized for the grave negligence of its employee in charge of Chinese social media on September 9, which caused great heartache to An Yu-jin and her fans."

The company acknowledged that the incident was caused by management negligence. We have taken severe disciplinary measures at the highest level and excluded the employee from related work. We have also promised to overhaul our internal management system to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future."

Starship Entertainment also sincerely apologizes to artist An Yu-jin. The company pledged to do its best to repair the damage caused by this incident.

Meanwhile, the controversy has been criticized by fans across  the world.