TikTok influencer imprisoned for posting photo of eating pork

A person who makes TikTok videos has been sent to prison in Indonesia for two years. The videos showed her saying a Muslim prayer and then eating pork.

Lina Lutfiawati, who has over two million fans on the platform, was found guilty of encouraging hatred based on religion. This goes against the strict blasphemy laws in the south-east Asian country.

In March, she shared a TikTok video from the island of Bali. In the video, she can be heard saying ‘Bismillah’, which means ‘in the name of God. She then bites into crispy pork skin.

The person who is famous on social media, and is Muslim, said she ate the meal in the popular tourist place because she was interested to see what it was like.

In the video, she makes a disgusted face while chewing.

The video caused a lot of anger in Indonesia, which is the biggest country where most people are Muslim. They got upset because eating pork is not allowed in their religion.

Another person from Indonesia told the police that Ms Lutfiawati, who is 33 years old, had eaten pork skin even though she is a Muslim. She was officially accused in May.

A court in the city of Palembang on Sumatra found her guilty of intentionally spreading information to make people hate each other because of their religion.
She was given a punishment of two years in jail and was told to give 250 million rupiah (£13,155) as a penalty. If she doesn’t give money, her time in jail might get longer by three months.

In an interview with a local news station called MetroTV, Ms. Lutfiawati admitted that she made a mistake, but she did not anticipate such a severe consequence.

The law used to accuse her has been criticized by human rights groups and activists in Indonesia for a long time. They say it unfairly targets religious groups that are not in the majority.

Usman Hamid, the leader of Amnesty International Indonesia, said that the law has been misused to silence disagreement or opposing opinions.

Last year, in the capital city of Jakarta, six workers from a bar and restaurant chain were accused of blasphemy. The accusation came after they ran a promotion where men named Mohammad could get a free bottle of gin every Thursday.