An organization named Komunitas Pengawas Korupsi (Corruption Watch Community), or KPK for short, filed a police complaint against popular Indonesian Youtuber Atta Halilintar at the Jakarta Metro Police yesterday.
KPK head Firdaus Oiwobo said they reported the 24-year-old vlogger — who is a member of a famous family of 13 renowned for championing Islamic values through the media — because he allegedly uploaded a video that was deemed blasphemous towards Islam. The group also filed a complaint against a Youtube user named Gunawan Swallow, who allegedly redistributed the video a few days ago.
According to Firdaus, the now-deleted video showed Atta and his younger siblings joking around while performing salah (Islamic prayer). The video, which was almost six minutes long, was originally uploaded last year and contained advice on how not to perform salah.
“There were scenes of rocking their bodies while accepting a phone call, shouting, and other inappropriate actions,” Firdaus told reporters yesterday, as quoted by Kompas.
KPK demanded that Atta and Gunawan Swallow be charged for blasphemy and violation of the Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE), specifically on spreading information intended to incite hatred of certain ethnicity, religion, and race.
Today, Atta posted a photo with a long caption that’s seemingly intended to be a jab at KPK.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4zoJfIh8py/
“Using my name to deceive. Editing my video to vilify my name. Spinning my story and content to elevate your story. God, I’m just a regular human who’s not perfect. I never said that I’m a good person, I always feel like I’m a bad person.
“Strengthen me, give me health and power as well as my parents, my family, and my loved ones. And everyone who relies their livelihood on me. Love you God. [Signed] Atta, Your servant,” Atta wrote.
Atta was named among the top 10 in a ranking of the world’s highest earning Youtubers this year, taking in an estimated £1.37 million (IDR23.6 billion or US$1,66 million) a month. However, Atta, who has 19.8 million subscribers on Youtube at the time of writing, refuted the report.
Atta started his career in the Indonesian entertainment industry with his parents and 10 younger siblings as a novelty family act named Gen Halilintar. The family published books about their journeys around the world, covered popular songs and produced a popular series of vlogs.
Aside from Atta, several of his siblings have also launched their own Youtube channels. Atta’s clickbait-y vlogs, pranks, as well as videos of his visits to celebrities’ homes have been hugely popular among Indonesian youngsters. His “Ashiap” catchphrase (a play on from the affirmative Indonesian word siap, which means “ready” or “yes”) has caught on like wildfire among Indonesian youths over the past year. One of his most popular prank videos, in which he dressed up as a hobo who tries to seal his friend’s Lamborghini with plastic wrap, has gotten over 15 million views.
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