The predominantly Muslim secular nation of Indonesia is in the grip of the Celebrity Sex Tape fever, and the consequences could spell not only prison time for the performers, but also the resurrection of a plan to the Internet, which was abandoned to filter earlier this year. Worse still, local Islamist groups have threatened to take matters into their own hands if the government does not act quickly.
Known since early June, videos showing alleged the singer Nazril Irham (pictured), popularly known as Ariel, have sex with his girlfriend, actress Luna Maya (pictured) and a married TV presenter, Cut Tari, rapidly via the Land distributed via social networking sites, mobile phones and pirated DVDs, "reported the New York Times.
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Worse for Ariel is the growing speculation that there are many more such tapes out there and waiting to be released into cyberspace. Local media reported that the videos their way to the Internet after Ariel's laptop was stolen, but that remains to be confirmed.
According to the Associated Press: "As the tapes were downloaded to Facebook and YouTube (they have since removed the pages' administrator) and distributed by mobile phone to another, the country tottered on the edge of sexual hysteria."
It was also reported that the police staged raids on Internet cafes and schools in an effort to suppress the proliferation of videos on mobile phones. Response from sponsors was even faster. Unilever and Sharp have already reportedly dropped the stars, and Maya is no longer hosts a popular television show of Indonesian music.
Legally, could a 2008 anti-pornography bill the video participants to send her to prison for up to 12 years, but Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring, a member of the Islamic Prosperous Justice Party that pushed through the 2008 anti-pornography bill that Parliament, told the Times that he did not believe that someone be charged for the videos, "but that this could in a video, in accordance with the provisions in the Penal Code prohibits adultery will be raised."
Sembiring also renewed an earlier request for control of content over the Internet, and wasted no time in ordering teams firewalls in more than 2,000 Internet cafes throughout the country in use of what he referred to dramatically as a "race against time."
But the threat coming not only from the government. Habib Salim, head of the militant Islamic Defenders Front, said act of the Jakarta Globe website that his supporters are ready.
"If the police can not arrest Ariel, Luna and Cut Tari within three days, we go to places that sell porn videos in Jakarta raid," he said, adding: "Porn actresses and actors are another form of terrorism . This is the moral terrorism. We must save the citizens from harm that degrade our morals. "
