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Is it safe now to use my phone?: Online intimidation haunts activists after KPK Law revision protests
Anttigraft activists have reported online intimidation against them following protests.
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Rest in peace: Employees at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) lay flowers and wreaths on top of a casket in front of the KPK headquarters in Kuningan, Central Jakarta, on Friday. This comes after the House of Representative elected Insp. Gen. Firli Bahuri from the National Police as the new KPK commissioner. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
"Is it safe now to use my phone?" Andre (not his real name) asked a member of the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) during an interview with The Jakarta Post last week.
Andre, a Jakarta-based activist who recently campaigned against the revision of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Law, looked at the phone in his hand -- a brand new one that he had bought not long after he had been subject to what he deems online terrorizing in the past week.
He has also deactivated his social media accounts, which had become the target of what he called terrorizing, defaming content sent from dozens of anonymous accounts.
He lost access to his WhatsApp account for some 30 minutes, then received a message containing a verification code to log back into his account, even though he had not requested one. This led him to conclude that someone had attempted to take over his WhatsApp account.
No longer feeling safe, Andre, who has refused to reveal his real name for safety reasons, has sought assistance from SAFEnet and the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).
He was advised by the organizations on what he should and should not do with regard to his digital activities, but he was also made aware of the bitter truth: Content aimed to attack him might be taken down from social media, but that did not mean it was gone forever.
Given the nature of social media, content can easily be spread widely in a split of a second and users could possibly download the content for future use within different contexts, Ellen Kusuma of SAFEnet told him.
