Clip shows suspects in Indonesian corruption case, not 'student who insulted Prabowo'

Published on March 18, 2025 at 08:12
3 min read
By AFP Indonesia

After footage of an anti-austerity protester calling President Prabowo Subianto a "dog" sparked anger among his supporters in Indonesia, a video was shared in posts that falsely claimed the demonstrator had been identified as the head of a student group and was under arrest. The video in fact shows several women who were held on suspicion of embezzling billions of rupiahs from a public health centre.

"The woman who insulted the president during the protest by calling Prabowo a 'dog' was officially arrested," reads the Indonesian-language caption of a TikTok video shared on February 28, 2025.

The video, viewed more than 37,000 times, shows prosecution service officers escorting several women wearing masks and prison uniforms. Audio of someone singing "Prabowo is a dog" can be heard in the background.

Overlaid text hails the "power of Indonesian netizens" in leading to the arrest of the protester who insulted the president, saying she is the head of the student group of Airlangga University, a state university in Surabaya.

Screenshot of the false TikTok post, captured on March 13, 2025

The video circulated after footage emerged of a protester delivering a speech and singing "Prabowo is a dog" during nationwide demonstrations in February against budget cuts by Prabowo's government aimed at funding a free-meal programme and other big-ticket campaign pledges (archived here and here).

Austerity measures announced by Prabowo in late January had sparked thousands of student protesters to rally across Indonesian cities, underpinned by a social media movement known as "Dark Indonesia".

The footage of the protester insulting the president triggered outrage from government supporters and pro-government influencers, who said she had "gone too far" (archived here, here and here).

The footage purportedly showing the arrested protester was shared in similar posts elsewhere on TikTok, X and YouTube.

But as of March 18 there have been no official reports about the protester's identity or whether she had been detained.

Airlangga University's student body president Aulia Thaariq Akbar told AFP on March 14 the woman filmed insulting Prabowo is not a member of his organisation.

Aulia added that no members of his organisation were arrested after the protests.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage posted on local broadcaster Semarang TV's TikTok page on January 24 (archived link).

The clip's Javanese-language caption says it shows two Kemusu Public Health Center workers named as suspects in a corruption investigation.

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and the Semarang TV clip

The same footage was also published on Semarang TV News' YouTube channel and the Liputan6 verified YouTube channel (archived here and here).

According to local media outlet Detik.com, the suspects worked as accountants at the facility in the Boyolali regency of Central Java province (archived link). They were alleged to have pocketed 1.9 billion rupiah ($116,000) between 2017 and 2022.

AFP previously debunked another false claim about the budget cut protests.

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