The 43-year-old founder of rights advocacy group Suara Kita was used to financing aid programs through the in-house SriKendes boutique, which sells original, traditional motif clothing that can fetch Rp 50 million to Rp 60 million (US$3,400 to $4,080) every month, mostly during exhibitions.

But when Jakarta entered a de facto lockdown in April, the exhibitions stopped, and Hartoyo began tinkering with Facebook, setting up a namesake "Har Toyo" account. He eventually settled on a new fundraising model: auctioning pre-loved clothes, handbags and shoes on Facebook Live.

“Store sales dropped drastically – maybe now around Rp 15 million to Rp 20 million – but we managed to find a new market by selling online,” Hartoyo told The Jakarta Post by phone on Aug. 14.

But then there were the online woes. Users began reporting his account, leading to two Facebook suspensions: one on July 23 and another on Aug. 8. The first suspension lasted a day and the second, around half an hour.

One Facebook Indonesia representative told Hartoyo that his account was suspended over his use of the word bencong, an Indonesian slur for “queer”. For Hartoyo, saying bencong meant reclaiming the word from its pejorative beginnings, but for the Facebook algorithms, it was hate speech.

“In these cases, we allow the content to remain on Facebook but require people to clearly indicate their intent,” a Facebook spokesperson told the Post on Aug. 19.

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