Amnesty Urges Police to Release @TheKerupuk Admin, Calls Arrest Unwarranted

Amnesty International Indonesia has urged the National Police to drop the legal process and immediately release the administrator of the parody account @TheKerupuk, following their arrest over a meme posting. Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid stated that the arrest was arbitrary, noting that the individual was still a witness at the time they were taken into custody by officers. “We strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest of the admin of the X account @TheKerupuk simply for posting a meme,” Usman said in a statement on Friday, 17 July 2026. Usman emphasised that satire, parody, and political memes are forms of peaceful expression that should not be criminalised. He argued that the application of Article 32 Paragraph (1) and Article 35 of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law in this case represents an act of silencing criticism. According to him, this move also contradicts the spirit of a Constitutional Court ruling which, Amnesty asserts, stated that social media disputes do not constitute criminal acts. Amnesty is calling on the National Police to order the Tangerang City Metro Police to halt the investigation and release the account administrator unconditionally. “The use of problematic articles, such as those in the ITE Law, to silence criticism is an injustice that must be stopped immediately. This is a human rights violation,” Usman said. Furthermore, Amnesty urged the government and the House of Representatives to promptly revise the articles within the ITE Law that are frequently used to criminalise citizens expressing peaceful opinions on social media. Usman noted that the right of every citizen to express opinions is guaranteed under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Indonesia ratified through Law Number 12 of 2005. Similar guarantees are also enshrined in Article 28E Paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution and Article 23 Paragraph (2) of Law Number 39 of 1999 on Human Rights. The Jakarta Legal Aid Institute previously reported that approximately ten police officers took the @TheKerupuk admin to the Tangerang City Metro Police on Monday, 14 July 2026, while the individual was still officially a witness.