Baseless claims about 'historic arrest' in Indonesia misrepresent old video

Published on June 23, 2025 at 10:50
2 min read
By AFP Indonesia

Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has charged hundreds of officials through the years but online claims that the agency recently arrested "700 village heads" during a single operation are baseless. The video in the false posts depicts a much lower number of graft suspects nabbed in South Sulawesi province in November 2024.

"First in the history of Indonesia, 700 village heads are arrested, they are herded to the KPK office," reads the Indonesian-language caption to a now-deleted clip shared June 4, 2025 on Facebook.

Screenshot of the false post taken June 18, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

Similar posts have earlier been shared on TikTok and YouTube.

According to a report from Indonesia's Metro TV News, the KPK has recorded over 800 village fund corruption cases from 2015 to 2024. Village heads comprise half of the more than 900 suspected perpetrators (archived link).

But there have been no official reports of a single-day arrest of 700 village chiefs.

Budi Prasetyo, spokesman for the KPK, told AFP on June 20, 2025 the claim that the video shows 700 village chiefs arrested by KPK is "not true".

A keyword search traced the footage to a TikTok post on November 12, 2024 (archived link). Its caption includes a link to a news report about the South Sulawesi police arresting 21 corruption suspects (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and earlier video from TikTok

A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google also found a similar video of the arrest uploaded to YouTube by local broadcaster Kompas TV Makassar (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and Kompas TV Makassar report with similarities highlighted by AFP

Kompas TV Makassar reported the suspects are city and regency officials from government bodies overseeing public works, trade, social services, and public credit banks. The report did not indicate they are village chiefs.

Indonesia's Antara news agency also reported about the arrest (archived link).

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