Village Head Hoho's Viral Dismissal Claim Exposed as Hoax
A narrative went viral claiming that Hoho Alkaf, the Head of Purwasaba Village, Mandiraja District, Banjarnegara Regency, Central Java, was being boycotted from his position because he was reprimanded by the Minister of Immigration and Penitentiary, Agus Andrianto, regarding the tattoos covering his body. However, the narrative turned out to be a hoax.
Several users of social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads edited a video of Minister Agus giving instructions at an internal ministry event in 2025. In the video, he discussed an Immigration officer in Bali who was new to the job and was found to be extorting foreign nationals, and who also had full-body tattoos. According to Minister Agus, someone who has been appointed as a civil servant should not commit crimes or dress as they please.
This edited video, with the addition of photos of Village Head Hoho Alkaf and the hoax narrative claiming that the village head was being boycotted due to Minister Agus’s statement, was widely circulated. Village Head Hoho expressed his disappointment with the spread of this hoax content.
“Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. In response to the videos circulating on social media, including TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, regarding the video of Mr. Minister, Mr. Agus, that video (of Agus Andrianto discussing tattoos) is quite old. And he mentioned that it was not about me, but about one of the Immigration officers in Bali who was committing illegal acts… or criminal acts. And that he should be dealt with firmly,” said Hoho Alkaf, as seen by detikcom in a video uploaded to his Facebook account on Wednesday (February 25, 2026).
Hoho Alkaf questioned the motives of the social media users who edited the video of Minister Agus and then linked it to him. He emphasised that the video of Minister Agus was not about him.
“So, regarding the recent trend of many netizens editing the video to show that Mr. Agus, the Minister, does not like tattoos, I am very disappointed with these netizens. Because what is the point of editing it so much? When it has nothing to do with me,” said Hoho Alkaf.
Hoho admitted that he has a good relationship with Minister Agus. To demonstrate their closeness, Hoho said that he has met and spoken with Minister Agus several times via video calls.
He also urged social media users to be wise. He hopes that social media users will not use any means to make their content go viral or gain more followers.
“Mr. Agus and I also know each other. I have also spoken to him several times on the phone, via video call. So, to all the netizens, I ask that you don’t do such edits just to make the video go viral or gain more followers. I think that is not good and not important,” said Hoho Alkaf.
Finally, Hoho Alkaf hopes that netizens in Indonesia will be sceptical and not blindly believe social media content. He added that netizens should investigate the information and check the facts before commenting and making judgements. He also hopes that netizens will stop spreading hoaxes.
“So, to all the netizens in Indonesia, don’t be so quick to believe. After seeing the new videos (published by anonymous accounts), check the digital footprint first. There is a video that belongs to me, and there is a video that is four or five years old. And the video from the Minister himself is already more than a year old. So, I ask you to stop doing things like that,” concluded Village Head Hoho.
Several netizens responded to Hoho’s explanation video and left comments in the comments section. Followers of Hoho’s Facebook account expressed their disappointment with the hoax video content.
“So, I was wrong to comment. I apologise to the Minister. Because I admire the Village Head Hoho’s efforts in development. So, if anyone slanders the Village Head Hoho, I won’t accept it. That’s why I shared it,” said a Facebook user named Wa Gino.
“Since the emergence of pro-Facebook groups, many people have resorted to any means to earn a small amount of money, compared to the sin of defamation,” said a user named Vict.
“Alhamdulillah, I only found out after the explanation from Mr. Village Head Hoho. From the beginning, I was not sure about the video because it was referring to an employee, not Village Head Hoho. Because Village Head Hoho is not a civil servant… Thank you for the information, keep up the spirit,” said a user named Den Sugeng Indragiri.
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(aud/zap)