TikToker Jailed For Telling Jesus To Get A Haircut
An Indonesian TikToker has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison after allegedly ‘talking’ to a picture of Jesus on her phone and telling him to get a haircut. Ratu Thalisa, a Muslim transgender woman with more than 442,000 TikTok followers, was livestreaming when she responded to a comment suggesting she cut her hair to look more like a man. On Monday, a court in Medan, Sumatra, found Thalisa guilty of spreading hatred under Indonesia’s controversial online hate-speech law.
She was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison. The court ruled that her comments could disrupt “public order” and “religious harmony” and charged her with blasphemy.
The ruling followed multiple police complaints filed by Christian groups against Thalisa. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have condemned the sentence. Amnesty called it “a shocking attack on Ratu Thalisa’s freedom of expression” and demanded it be overturned.
“The Indonesian authorities should not use the country’s Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) law to punish people for comments made on social media,” Amnesty International Indonesia’s Executive Director Usman Hamid said in a statement.
“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,” he added.
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Hamid urged Indonesian authorities to overturn Thalisa’s conviction and ensure her immediate release. He also called for the repeal or substantial revision of what he described as “problematic provisions” in the EIT Law, specifically those criminalising alleged immorality, defamation, and hate speech.
First introduced in 2008 and amended in 2016 to address online defamation, the EIT Law was originally intended to protect individuals’ rights in digital spaces. However, it has faced significant criticism from rights groups, press organisations, and legal experts, who argue that it threatens freedom of expression.
Between 2019 and 2024, at least 560 people were charged under the EIT Law for exercising their freedom of expression, with 421 convictions, according to Amnesty International. Several social media influencers have faced defamation and hate speech charges under the law.
Thalisa’s case, in which a Muslim woman is accused of hate speech against Christianity, is relatively uncommon.
Prosecutors had initially sought a sentence of more than four years and have since appealed Monday’s verdict. Thalisa has been given seven days to appeal the ruling.
SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news
Content Credit| Agbetan Bisola
Image Credit| https://www.bbc.com/news
