In a Jakarta courtroom, a university student faces six months in prison for editing a news headline and posting it to activist accounts the day before nationwide protests erupted in August 2025. The case of Khariq Anhar — already acquitted once, now reprosecuted — asks an ancient question in a digital frame: where does satire end and incitement begin, and who gets to decide? Indonesia's ITE Law, increasingly used to silence critical voices, has made a young man's altered screenshot into a referendum on the boundaries of free expression in a democracy that has ratified the very international co
Indonesia seeks prison time for student who edited protest post, raising free speech concerns
At least seven deaths resulted from the August 2025 nationwide unrest that prosecutors claim was fueled by Khariq's edited post.