TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Grace Natalie reports internet users for libel against her and Ahok
Change Size
Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) chairwoman Grace Natalie (right) and party politician Giring Ganesha at the party's headquarters in Jakarta after the announcement of the PSI's legislative candidates on Dec.17. (Antara/Wahyu Putro A.)
G
race Natalie, chairwoman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) reported two social media accounts to the police on Thursday on charges of criminal defamation and cybercrime.
The first is an anonymous Twitter account with the handle @hulk_idn, the holder of which claims Grace had an affair with jailed former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama to receive party funding from the "9 dragon tycoons"; an almost mythical list of nine ethnic Chinese Indonesian businessmen who supposedly control the country.
“If that was true, the PSI would be rich and we wouldn’t need to continue fundraising,” Grace said as reported by tempo.co.
The second is an anonymous Instagram account by the handle @prof.djohkhowie, which posted derisive edited pictures of Grace and her party.
Interestingly, @prof.djohkhowie also posted pictures ridiculing @hulk_idn, including one post asking viewers to unfollow @hulk_idn claiming they were "tadpoles", a derogatory term for supporters of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
Grace is accusing the two users of cyber harassment and hate speech, which defies the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions Law, as well as defaming her, her political party and Ahok, which defies the criminal code.
“But what I think is most evil is that he [@hulk_idn] is saying he will release a video [of the alleged affair],” she said.
Grace responded to this threat yesterday by posting a video on her own Instagram account.
“I challenge Hulk to release the video in 24 hours from now. If Hulk fails to release the video, it proves this is all fiction. Just like his display picture,” she said in the video.
At 11 a.m. today, she released a follow-up video saying the time was up and @hulk_idn had failed to release the video.
"This proves that everything the hulk wrote is baseless garbage whose purpose is to defame,” she said.
She ended by asking netizens to compile a list of all such derisive accounts and report them to the police to ensure no one else becomes a victim. (nor/evi)
