TikToker jailed for telling Jesus to chop his hair

An Indonesian TikToker has been sentenced to nearly three years in jail after reportedly ‘speaking’ to an image of Jesus on her telephone and telling him to get a haircut.

Ratu Thalisa, a Muslim transgender girl with greater than 442,000 TikTok followers, had been on a livestream, and was responding to a remark that instructed her to chop her hair to look extra like a person.

On Monday, a court docket in Medan, Sumatra discovered Thalisa responsible of spreading hatred underneath a controversial on-line hate-speech legislation, and sentenced her to 2 years and 10 months in jail.

The court docket mentioned her feedback might disrupt “public order” and “spiritual concord” in society, and charged her with committing blasphemy.

The court docket ruling got here after a number of Christian teams filed police complaints in opposition to Ms Thalisa for blasphemy.

The sentence has been condemned by human rights teams, together with Amnesty Worldwide, who described it as “a stunning assault on Ratu Thalisa’s freedom of expression” and known as for it to be quashed.

“The Indonesian authorities mustn’t use the nation’s Digital Info and Transactions (EIT) legislation to punish individuals for feedback made on social media,” Amnesty Worldwide Indonesia’s Government Director Usman Hamid mentioned in a press release.

“Whereas Indonesia ought to prohibit the advocacy of non secular hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, Ratu Thalisa’s speech act doesn’t attain that threshold.”

Mr Hamid known as on Indonesian authorities to overturn Ms Thalisa’s conviction and guarantee her quick launch from custody.

He additionally urged them to repeal or make substantial revisions to what he described as “problematic provisions” within the EIT Legislation – particularly, these criminalising alleged immorality, defamation and hate speech.

First launched in 2008 and amended in 2016 to deal with on-line defamation, the EIT Legislation was designed to safeguard the rights of people in on-line areas.

It has been roundly criticised, nevertheless, by rights teams, press teams and authorized consultants, who’ve lengthy raised considerations concerning the legislation’s potential risk to freedom of expression.

Not less than 560 individuals have been charged with alleged violations of the EIT Legislation whereas exercising their freedom of expression between 2019 and 2024, and 421 have been convicted, in accordance with knowledge from Amnesty Worldwide.

These charged with offenses of defamation and hate speech have included a number of social media influencers.

In September 2023, a Muslim girl was sentenced to 2 years’ jail for blaspheming Islam, after she posted a viral TikTok video the place she mentioned an Islamic phrase earlier than consuming pork.

In 2024, one other TikToker was detained for blasphemy after they posted a quiz asking kids what sort of animals can learn the Quran, in accordance with Amnesty Worldwide.

Indonesia is house to many spiritual minorities, together with Buddhists, Christians and Hindus. However a overwhelming majority of Indonesians are Muslim – and most circumstances of individuals present in violation of the EIT Legislation have usually associated to spiritual minorities allegedly insulting Islam.

Ms Thalisa’s case, the place a Muslim girl is accused of invoking hate speech in opposition to Christianity, is much less frequent.

Prosecutors beforehand demanded that she obtain a sentence of greater than 4 years, and instantly appealed Monday’s verdict. Ms Thalisa was given seven days to attraction.