UPDATE May 5: The Russian woman who pulled the face paint mask prank is set to leave Indonesia later tonight. However, officials said that the other person in the viral video will not be deported, as they did not find him guilty of violating local regulations. Read the latest update here.
The two influencers who have been the subjects of outrage across Indonesia for their face paint mask prank in Bali will be deported soon, an official said today, after a video of their stunt was widely castigated online earlier this month.
In a video received by Coconuts, the Head of the Bali office for the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Jamaruli Manihuruk, declared that the two influencers violated a gubernatorial regulation mandating mask use in public. As such, officials deemed that they have also violated Indonesia’s immigration laws subjecting them to comply with local regulations, sanctions of which include deportation.
“The plan is to deport them, but it’s still a plan because we’re still looking at when they can depart, it depends on the flights to their country, but we hope to do it soon,” Jamaruli said.
A Taiwan-born influencer named Josh Paler Lin and a Russian influencer, Se Leia AKA Lisha, sparked outrage across Indonesia earlier this month for their ignorant prank video, which shows Lisha going into a local grocery store with a painted mask on as Lin films her, both expressing disbelief that no one noticed and that the stunt “worked.”
The two have re-activated their Instagram accounts after briefly setting them to private following the controversy, with Lin having uploaded an apology video about a week ago. With proper masks on, they claimed that they had no intention to disrespect or encourage people not to wear masks, and that the prank video was made “to entertain people.”
Lin now has over 325,000 followers on Instagram and 3.4 million subscribers on YouTube, while Lisha — who appears on many of Lin’s recent videos — has about 25,000 followers on Instagram. It is not lost on us that the two have racked up a couple thousands followers since we first reported on this controversy.
Earlier this year in January, Indonesian immigration deported an American digital nomad named Kristen Gray after her controversial Twitter thread about moving to Bali went viral and was deemed to have “unsettled the public” by officials. In the same month, immigration also deported a Russian influencer named Sergei Kosenko for violating health protocols and the purpose of his stay permit during his time in the country.
