Amid the climate of fear and paranoia caused by the “LGBT panic” that has gripped Indonesia this year, it’s no wonder why most members of the minority group are terrified to go public about their sexuality. Not only do they face society’s scorn and hatred, they can also get into serious trouble with the law just for displaying their love publicly.
That is what happened to two men, identified by their initials TG (22) and FA (24), who were arrested in Manado, North Sulawesi yesterday after they posted photos of themselves kissing on Facebook.
The photos, which show the two men topless and kissing, went viral on social media after they were posted on October 9. The reactions of netizens were overwhelmingly negative, to the point that the authorities were alerted about the photos.
“Our team tracked down the locations of the two men thanks to information from netizens, and on October 11 we found the two in Bahu, Manado,” North Sulawesi Police Spokesman Marzuki wrote in a statement today, as picked up by Detik.
Engaging in homosexual acts is not a crime in Indonesia (though some anti-LGBT “academics” are currently petitioning the Constitutional Court to criminalize homosexual acts). However, in what comes to no surprise, the authorities spun TG and FA’s photos into a “pornography” case, thus violating the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE) and Indonesia’s anti-pornography laws.
The original photos are no longer available on Facebook. Indonesia’s IT Ministry said that they made a request to Facebook to take down the photos.
“Facebook is very concerned about inappropriate content, including LGBT,” said IT Ministry Spokesman Noor Iza, as quoted by Detik yesterday.
It’s not clear if Facebook actually took down the photos at the IT Ministry’s request or if TG and FA deleted the photos themselves. We certainly hope Facebook doesn’t see LGBT content as “inappropriate” considering their track record of supporting LGBT rights. But then again the social media giant has been accused of banning users for posting photos of men kissing before.
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