Indonesian TV host-turned-entrepreneur Ruben Onsu has sternly called out two social media accounts which targeted his children with online harassment and death threats.
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Ruben has two children, a 5-year-old girl named Thalia Putri Onsu, and his adopted son, 15-year-old Betrand Peto, who is from Ruteng, a small town in the highlands of Flores island, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).
Ruben uploaded two screenshots of the accounts, the first one being a Facebook account with the handle that uses Thalia’s name and the message “Kill Thalia” with knife emojis as its bio. The second one is an Instagram account named @betrandpeto_babi (Betrand Peto is a pig) with “Batrand anak pungut (Betrand is an adopted child)” as the display name, and appeared to post photos of the boy edited with pig nostrils.
“I just couldn’t bring myself to think with the bio on these Facebook and Instagram accounts, did they intentionally write these or were they just messing around? […] If I were to ask them, what did my children do wrong? [One of them] doesn’t even use social media, so why do people still say that this is the risk that comes with me being a celebrity?” Ruben wrote in the caption, adding that he has censored the Facebook account’s profile photo out of concern that they might be using another person’s photo.
Ruben said he refuses to stay silent when it comes to the safety of his family, and that he’s waiting for the parties concerned to come forward.
“If the culprits deliberately remove their accounts after I upload my post, I’ll take it as a sign of their cowardice, I’m uploading it here so you’ll know that the parents of the children you are bullying are waiting for you.”
At the time of writing, the Facebook account is still active while @betrandpeto_babi is no longer available, which could either mean it was deleted by the owner or taken down by Instagram. In a YouTube video uploaded today, Ruben claimed to have tracked down the people behind the accounts and said he expects them to come forward and apologize.
Ruben’s call-out post has received overwhelming support from fellow celebrities and fans. As one of Indonesia’s top celebrities, Ruben has put his family at the forefront of his public persona as a doting father and husband to his wife, former girl group member Sarwendah Tan. No matter how public someone is about their families, bullying and threatening to kill their young children is sickening.
