The public needs to comprehend cases of hate speech, which contain ethnic, religious, racial, and inter-group contents, and have the potential to divide the nation and incite troubleJakarta (ANTARA) - The police have urged people to use social media wisely to avoid legal wrangles.
Head of the public information bureau of the public relations division of the police, Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan, made the appeal following the recent arrest and charging of Ferdinand Hutahaean over hate speech. Hutahaean reportedly tweeted 'Your God is weak' in a post that went viral on social media.
"The public needs to comprehend cases of hate speech, which contain ethnic, religious, racial, and inter-group contents, and have the potential to divide the nation and incite trouble," Ramadhan said here on Tuesday.
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Hutahean's has not been the only instance where hate speech has invited legal action, he added. Several other hate speech suspects, such as Muhammad Kace, and Yahya Waloni, have also faced a similar fate, he elaborated.
Ramadhan further said that the National Police will take firm action, in accordance with the law, against perpetrators of hate speech, which could disrupt the peace of the nation.
National Police investigators named Hutahean as a suspect after securing two pieces of evidence against him—DVDs and a screenshot of his tweet, he informed. Investigators also confiscated his cellphone and detained him at the Central Jakarta Branch Detention Center of the National Police Headquarters, he added.
Hutahean was charged under Article 14 paragraph (1) and (2) criminal law regulation Number 1 of 1946, Article 45 paragraph (2) in conjunction with Article 28 paragraph (2) of the law on Electronic Information and Transactions, which bears a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment, Ramadhan said.
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Several other hate speech suspects, such as Muhammad Kace and Yahya Waloni, have also been charged under the law on Electronic Information and Transactions, he noted.
In the National Police's year-end release on December 31, 2021, police chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo had said that his force has expedited measures to reduce debates over the law, which many have thought of as a violation of the freedom of speech.
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Police have changed the repressive approach to a more preemptive and preventive one, such as by issuing circulars on maintaining etiquette and ethics in cyberspace as well as launching the Virtual Police application to warn people who upload provocative or racially charged content, he elaborated.
"However, if there are problems arising, we will process it. But we will follow through step by step, not like how we used to be, (where we) catch them first and then proceed with it. Currently, we do an approach in which we are reminding the public. This is going well. Many people did not understand (cyberspace etiquette), (but then) they fixed (their behavior). Yet these (reminders) do not (necessarily mean) reduction of freedom of expression or criticism," Prabowo said.
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Translator: Laily Rahmawaty, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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