Indonesians apologize to Thailand on behalf of homophobic netizens

A graphic featuring Thai and Indonesian texts that read, “Stop this fight. Let’s be calm and forget what has happened.”
A graphic featuring Thai and Indonesian texts that read, “Stop this fight. Let’s be calm and forget what has happened.”

The civilized among Indonesia’s large internet population are apologizing en masse to Thailand following an ugly cross-border display of homophobia toward their regional neighbors.

Earlier this week, a high-profile legal campaigner in Thailand said Indonesians would not be welcome in his country after an unfortunately large number of netizens harassed and made death threats toward a newlywed same-sex Thai couple on Facebook.

Related — Married Thai couple shaken by harassment, death threats from homophobic Indonesians

With news of the harassment traveling fast throughout Indonesia, many in the country say they are ashamed by the appalling behavior of certain homophobic groups, and are today showing solidarity toward their Thai friends. 

The hashtag #IndonesiaSaySorryForThailand [sic], which contains messages of apology towards Thai and LGBTQ+ people, has become the top trending topic on Indonesian Twitter today.

https://twitter.com/pacarnyakit/status/1382236607818866689?s=20

The hashtag is also populating the Thai couple’s Facebook post, which had for days become the site of a flame war between Indonesians and Thais, as well as a cesspool of homophobia and Islamophobia toward Indonesia’s Muslims.

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