简体中文
By APD Writer Maverick
JAKARTA, Sept. 12 (APD) – Indonesian authorities have recently made series of arrests against those identified of spreading hates through the social media over the concerns that it could undermine the nation’s unity, charging them with the existing Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) law.
The latest arrest was conducted against a youth and a housewife who had actively posted hatred speeches against the president and his wife, posted fake news in their social media accounts.
The youth, identified as Dodik Ikhwanto was arrested on Monday night in South Sumatra capital of Palembang for posted an indecent meme that severely insulted the First Lady Iriana Joko Widodo in his Instagram account.
Speaking after being interrogated by police, he said that hates President Joko Widodo so much that he expressed in the indecent meme he published last week. He previously also published insulting memes against the president in his social media account.
Meanwhile, the housewife lady, identified as Asma Dewi, was arrested here on Monday for transferring a sum of fund to a group that produced hate speeches and fake news through social media, which was dismantled earlier last month.
“She was arrested under the allegation of committed in hate speech by spreading insults and fake news by manipulating sensitive ethnicity and religious issues. We have confiscated her gadgets and collected her offensive postings her social media,” Indonesian Police Headquarters Spokesperson Setyo Wasisto said on Tuesday.
Asma, who is a radical Muslim group activist, was proved to have transferred some 75 million rupiah (about 5,680 U.S. Dollars) to the hate speech producer group called Saracen.
Saracen offered hate speech and fake news ‘service’ through their hundreds of thousands social media accounts for money.
The group manipulated sensitive issues to meet demands of their clients. The unruly group was actively did its misdeeds in the recent Jakarta governor election by attacking the incumbent governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who came from minority group of Christian Chinese, in the social media.
The group has published its hate speeches by manipulating sensitive issues of ethnicity and religious tolerance through its more than 800,000 Facebook and other social media accounts during the election process that resulted to the failure of Basuki to extend his gubernatorial service term.
The group was also actively provoking the people during the religious blasphemy case against Basuki which prompted waves of massive demonstrations against him. The court has eventually sentenced Basuki a two-year imprisonment for proved guilty in the case.
Police have named suspects against the group’s organizers, charged them with multiple legal sanctions which could carry a sentence of 8 years imprisonment.
Tensions in the social media remained high aftermath the two events with Basuki supporters and Muslim hardliner group followers actively exchanges bad statements through the social media until now.
An analyst from Vox Populi Research and Consulting Syarwi Chaniago said that activities carried out by Saracen were very dangerous in a country like Indonesia which recognizes diversity in the country.
“In digital politics, Saracen has committed a very serious violation, leads to destruction in the nation’s unity. Its misdeeds would easily prompt horizontal conflicts between each ethnics and religious followers in the country,” Chaniago said.
Indonesia has a more than 260 million ethnically diverse population with most of them Muslims. Minorities other than Muslims hold significant portion of the population across the archipelago country.
Government has set top priority to preserve the unity of the archipelago country.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
