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.
Stop animal horror shows
The arrest of two men in September for posting videos of the torture of long-tailed macaques is further proof of Indonesia’s shameful and disproportionate role in the proliferation of animal abuse content on social media.
Change Size
Marked as the number one supplier of animal abuse videos online, Indonesia needs strict policies to protect vulnerable animals. (Unsplash/Jamie Haughton)
T
he arrest of two men in September for posting videos of the torture of long-tailed macaques is further proof of Indonesia’s shameful and disproportionate role in the proliferation of animal abuse content on social media. Home to thousands of endangered species, the country traffics, if not abuses, many of these for profit, instead of giving them the protection they deserve.
According to The Conversation in 2021, the Asia for Animals Coalition found that more than a fifth of the 5,000 animal abuse videos discovered that year on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok had come from Indonesia, making the country the world’s number one supplier. Such videos are also sold to online groups around the world.
The two men arrested told the police they could earn up to Rp 8 million a month from selling the videos of the long-tailed monkeys online. Their graphic content included mutilating monkeys alive, Kompas.com reported.
Like child pornography, which Indonesia was also once one of the world’s biggest suppliers, producing and selling animal abuse videos is easy and lucrative. And the law is often woefully inadequate at preventing violations.
Article 302 of the Criminal Code states that animal abusers face imprisonment of up to nine months or fines of up to Rp 400,000 (US$25), depending on the impact of their abuse. That’s clearly not sufficient to deter cruelty against animals, endangered or otherwise.
People who torture animals, or enjoy watching such shows, are deeply mentally ill, and their state raises questions about what else are they capable of doing. Recall the horror story of Canadian Luka Magnotta, who began with torturing cats before murdering a college student in 2012.
Something must also be done to stop the distribution of animal torture videos online. Content moderation is ineffective, despite the Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law. The law criminalizes the spread of negative content, such as pornography, racial hatred and other activities that violate social norms.
Communications and Information Ministry Regulation No. 5/2020 places the responsibility for content moderation on phone makers, internet service providers, technology platforms, publishers and posters. But no one seems to be held responsible for allowing videos of animal cruelty to spread on social media.
Content moderation at scale may be challenging for these giant platforms, but that is hardly an excuse for doing a poor job. Besides taking these videos down, platforms should collaborate with the police to track down and identify the sources of these videos.
The lack of public attention paid to the arrest of the two alleged animal torturers raises troubling questions about society’s tolerance of animal cruelty. The law protecting animals will not likely change unless there is public pressure, which has not been forthcoming.
Indonesia’s small band of animal activists can organize online and offline to increase public awareness about the abuses that animals face and how to prevent them. Being labeled the world’s number one supplier of animal cruelty is nothing for Indonesia to be proud of.
