A MUSLIM influencer has been jailed after she allegedly spoke to a picture of Jesus on her phone and told him to get a haircut.
TikTok star Ratu Thalisa, who is transgender, had been on a livestream and was replying to a viewer who told her to cut her hair to look more like a man.
tiktok/@ratuentokglowskincareMuslim TikTok influencer telling a picture of Jesus Christ to get a haircut.[/caption]
tiktok/@ratuentokglowskincareIndonesian TikTok star, Ratu Thalisa responded to a viewer who told her she should cut her hair to avoid looking like a woman.[/caption]
She pointed to how Jesus has long hair in the picture on her phone and told the figure: “You should cut your hair”.
Referring to the viewer’s father she continued: “You should cut your hair so that you will look like his father.”
On Monday, she was found guilty of spreading hate under an online hate-speech law –which has been subject to criticism.
She was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison by the district court in Medan, North Sumatra province of the Muslim-majority country.
Her arrest came less than a week after five Christian groups filed complaints against Thalisa for blasphemy over the Jesus comments which were made on 2 October.
In addition to her sentencing, Thalisa was also ordered to pay a fine of £4,716 (100,000,000 IDR).
The court in Indonesia said Thalisa’s comments could lead to disruption of “public order” and “religious harmony”.
Her sentence on Monday was met immediately with appeals from prosecutors who demanded that Thalisa should have a higher sentence of more than four years.
However, Amnesty International Indonesia’s Executive Director Usman Hamid remarked that comments on social media should not be disciplined under Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) law.
He said: “While Indonesia should prohibit the advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, Ratu Thalisa’s speech act does not reach that threshold.
“This sentence highlights the increasingly arbitrary and repressive application of Indonesia’s EIT law to violate freedom of expression.”
Hamid further urged authorities to repeal or revise “problematic provisions” in the EIT law and overturn Thalisa’s conviction and offer her an “immediate and unconditional release.”
Ratu Thalisa has a week to decide whether to appeal the sentence, which was also met with anger from rights groups who called it a “shocking attack” on Thalisa’s freedom of expression.
In 2023, another Muslim influencer, Lina Lutfiawati, received a jail sentence of two years, after making a TikTok video which showed her eating pork after reciting an Islamic prayer.
Last year, Indonesia proposed imposing fines against tech and social media companies that do not take down content which is opposed by the state authorities.
According to Amnesty, in 2022, “’several provisions” within the criminal law of defamation and the “dissemination of information that incites hatred” online have been “excessively and arbitrarily used as a basis for making police reports and arresting members of civil society for simply exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly”.
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