An Indonesian social media influencer has been sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison for blasphemy after making comments about Jesus Christ’s hair. The court in North Sumatra found Ratu Thalisa, a Muslim transgender woman with nearly 450,000 TikTok followers, guilty of spreading hate speech against Christianity, according to Amnesty International and local media reports.
Thalisa, known online as Ratu Entok, made the remarks during a live broadcast on October 2, 2024, while holding up an image of Christ. In response to a viewer’s comment suggesting she should cut her hair to appear more masculine, she said: “You should not look like a woman. You should cut your hair so that you will look like his father.”
Her remarks prompted five Christian groups to file police complaints, leading to her arrest on October 8.
In addition to her prison sentence, the court fined Thalisa approximately $6,200. She was convicted under Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) law, with the court ruling that her comments could disturb “public order” and “religious harmony.”
Amnesty International Indonesia has strongly criticized the ruling, calling it a “shocking attack” on freedom of expression.
“The EIT law should not be used to punish people for social media comments,” said Usman Hamid, Executive Director of Amnesty International Indonesia, on Monday.
“While Indonesia should prohibit the advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence, Ratu Thalisa’s speech does not meet that threshold,” he said.
According to Amnesty, at least 560 people were charged under the EIT Law from 2019 to 2024, with offenses ranging from defamation to hate speech.
“This sentence highlights the increasingly arbitrary and repressive application of Indonesia’s EIT law to silence free speech,” Hamid added. “The authorities must quash Ratu Thalisa’s conviction, ensure her immediate and unconditional release, and revise problematic provisions of the EIT Law that criminalize ‘immorality,’ defamation, and hate speech.”
Thalisa is one of several individuals recently convicted under Indonesia’s blasphemy laws, which critics argue disproportionately target religious minorities and those perceived to have insulted Islam.
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, has a population of 231 million, with at least 93% identifying as Muslim. In recent years, religious conservatism has been on the rise, and rights groups warn that blasphemy laws are being increasingly “weaponized” to suppress dissent.
In September 2023, Muslim social media influencer Lina Lutfiawati, known as Lina Mukherjee, was sentenced to two years in prison after posting a TikTok video in which she recited an Islamic prayer before eating pork.
One of Indonesia’s most high-profile blasphemy cases involved Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, widely known as Ahok, Jakarta’s first non-Muslim governor in 50 years. In 2017, he was sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy after referencing a Quranic verse during his re-election campaign, despite issuing a public apology.
