Indonesian TikTok influencer Ratu Thalisa, a Muslim transgender woman with over 442,000 followers, has been sentenced to two years and ten months in prison for comments made during an October 2024 livestream.
Responding to a viewer’s suggestion to cut her hair to appear more masculine, she held up a picture of Jesus Christ and remarked, “You should cut your hair so that you will look like his father.”
A court in Medan, Sumatra, sentenced Ratu Thalisa to two years and ten months in prison on Monday after finding her guilty of spreading hatred under Indonesia’s controversial online hate-speech law.
The court ruled that Thalisa’s comments could threaten “public order” and “religious harmony,” leading to her conviction for blasphemy.
The court’s decision followed police complaints from multiple Christian groups accusing Thalisa of blasphemy.
Her sentence has been widely condemned by human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, which called it “a shocking attack on Thalisa’s freedom of expression” and demanded that it be overturned.
“The Indonesian authorities should not use the country’s Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) law to punish people for comments made on social media,” Amnesty International Indonesia’s Executive Director Usman Hamid said in a statement.
“While Indonesia should prohibit the advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, Ratu Thalisa’s speech act does not reach that threshold.”
Hamid urged Indonesian authorities to overturn Thalisa’s conviction and secure her immediate release.
He also called for the repeal or revision of “problematic provisions” in the EIT Law, particularly those criminalizing alleged immorality, defamation, and hate speech.
