Indonesia Crackdown On Anti-Palestine Views Through Social Media
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Indonesian authorities are cracking down on youngsters using social media to condemn Palestinians in the ongoing conflict with Israel.
A young man faces six years in prison, and a student was expelled from school after they mocked Palestinians on video platform TikTok, Christians and other sources told Worthy News.
The cases underscore tensions over the Israeli-Palestinian fighting thousands of miles away in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
Once known primarily for viral dance trends, video application TikTok has also become a key platform for sharing news and views.
The Chinese-owned site has a vast, mostly younger audience, with an estimated 700 million active monthly users worldwide, including many in Indonesia.
Police are cracking down on what commentators called an “ongoing trend on Indonesian TikTok involving young people bashing Palestine and its people.”
That resulted in the expulsion of a grade 11 high school student in Bengkulu province recently. In her video, the unidentified girl allegedly called Palestinians “pigs” who “deserve” to be massacred.
It was unclear whether she referred to Hamas militants who fired rockets into Israel, killing more than a dozen people.
Earlier, a young man from West Nusa Tenggara province with an identical message on TikTok was detained by police. He faces up to six years in prison for violating the Information and Electronic Transactions Act, Indonesian media reported.
The suspect was quoted as saying that he meant to “insult Israel,” expressing broader anti-Israeli sentiments in the country. Indonesia has no formal diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, though thousands of Christian pilgrims travel from Indonesia to Israel each year.
Though the Bengkulu girl did not face criminal charges, police said they came to her school and “educated students about the dangers of hate speech.”
The girl also posted a public apology.
“I apologize to the state of Palestine and its people for my statement on TikTok. I promise to accept the consequences,” she added.
Despite her apology, the local education board expelled her from school. “Her actions scarred the reputation of education in Central Bengkulu. The solution is for the school to return her to her parents,” said Central Bengkulu Education Board head Adang Parlindungan in published remarks.
Indonesia’s Association for Education and Teachers criticized her expulsion, saying the video was “an expression of teenage angst.”
The group stressed the blame should fall on her teachers for keeping her “ignorant about the plight of Palestinians.”
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