 On August 19, 2019, the American model and singer Charlotte Kemp Muhl uploaded a photo wearing a T-shirt design with the Rising Sun Flag on Instagram.She was criticized for this by Korean Internet commenters, who compared the flag's symbolic significance to that of the German Nazi flag.Mule responded that the flag "was first used by the Japanese during the Meiji era...before the Korean colonial rule," and therefore its usage should not necessarily be interpreted as indicating support of Imperial Japan or its rule over Korea.