An Indonesian social media influencer, Ratu Thalisa, has been sentenced to two years and 10 months in jail for blasphemy after making a controversial comment about Jesus Christ during a live TikTok broadcast.
Thalisa, a Muslim transgender woman known online as Ratu Entok, was found guilty by a court in North Sumatra province of spreading hate speech against Christianity. The court also ordered her to pay a fine of around $6,200.
The incident happened on October 2, 2024, during a live session where a viewer suggested Thalisa should cut her hair to look more like a man. In response, she held up a picture of Jesus and said, “You should not look like a woman. You should cut your hair so that you will look like his father.”
Following this, five Christian groups filed complaints to the Indonesian police, accusing her of blasphemy. She was arrested on October 8, 2024.
The court ruled that her comments violated Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) law, stating that her words could disturb “public order” and “religious harmony.”
Amnesty International Indonesia has strongly condemned the verdict. The group’s Executive Director, Usman Hamid, said, “The sentence is a shocking attack on Ratu Thalisa’s freedom of expression.” He added, “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 also urged authorities to overturn Thalisa’s conviction. “The authorities must quash Ratu Thalisa’s conviction, ensure her immediate and unconditional release, and repeal or make substantial revisions to the problematic provisions in the EIT law criminalizing ‘immorality,’ defamation, and hate speech,” he said.
According to Amnesty International, at least 560 people were charged under the EIT law for various offenses, including defamation and hate speech, between 2019 and 2024.
Thalisa’s case is one of many blasphemy convictions in Indonesia, a country with the world’s largest Muslim population. Rights groups have raised concerns about the rising religious conservatism and how blasphemy laws are being used against religious minorities and those seen as insulting Islam.
In a similar case in September 2023, Muslim social media influencer Lina Lutfiawati, known as Lina Mukherjee, was sentenced to two years in prison for a TikTok video where she recited an Islamic prayer before trying pork.
Another high-profile case was that of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, also known as Ahok, Jakarta’s first non-Muslim governor in 50 years. He was jailed for two years in 2017 for referencing a Quran verse during his re-election campaign.
Thalisa remains in custody as her legal team considers their next steps.
