Facebook Troll Makes Racist Remarks; Arrested

(Original story at Yahoo! News Singapore here.)

Here we have a man who set up a Facebook account under a fake profile and made controversial remarks for the sole purpose of trolling. Why he did that, we don’t know, but his trolling got too far and has got him into trouble.

The Yahoo! article didn’t say what he said, but some research revealed that he made disparaging remarks about Malay Muslims and pigs.

I’ve previous written about restrictions to freedom of speech, depending on the jurisdiction you live in. In Germany, it is illegal to deny the Holocaust. In Thailand, it is considered lese-majeste (and a very serious crime) to insult the king. In the United States, it is a felony to threaten the President. In South Korea, it is against the law to perform acts that benefit North Korea. And in Singapore, it is illegal to make disparaging remarks about any race or religion.

Man, 22, under police probe for posting racist remarks under pseudonym ‘Heather Chua’

By Jeanette Tan | Yahoo Newsroom – Fri, Jan 10, 2014

A 22-year-old man is under investigation by local police for a string of offensive remarks he allegedly posted under the fictitious name “Heather Chua” on Facebook.

In a statement issued on Friday, police said several members of the public have filed police reports against his posts, which angered many Internet users. The first, police said, was filed on 3 January this year.

Police said they determined the 22-year-old’s identity through “extensive investigations”. The man is now assisting police with their investigations.

Police warned also that any person found guilty of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race, and carrying out acts that undermine harmony, can be jailed for up to three years and fined.

Using the moniker “Heather Chua”, the man allegedly posted comments insulting the work of National Servicemen, ITE graduates and Malays, among a series of other things. “Chua”’s posts, which were frequently geotagged to Sentosa Cove, ignited the ire of many Facebook users, prompting the efforts of some to track down who “she” was.

A screengrab of a post written by Heather Chua, which criticised a friend of hers who married an ITE graduate.

In a recent post, “Chua” told a lengthy story of a friend of hers from Raffles Girls’ School who got married to an ITE graduate. “She” claimed that her friend’s parents disapproved of their relationship “because of his poor family background and where he came from”, adding that they did not attend her wedding while saying how “extremely disappointed in her” “she” was.

Several bloggers accused him of creating fake modelling events in a bid to trick aspiring models to send their portfolio pictures to him. They also said in various posts on Facebook that the photographs of luxury cars “Chua” posts on “her” Facebook profile contain digitally altered licence plates that do not exist on Singapore’s vehicle listings.

The female images used as “Chua”’s profile pictures were also allegedly stolen from Thai actress and blogger Pimpatchara Vajrasevee. The latter also previously took to her Instagram account to call “Chua” out for stealing her pictures, but she allegedly denied doing so in comments on Vajrasevee’s pictures.

According to screengrabs of “Chua”’s account, “her” birthday is 25 July 1973, and listed the University of Phoenix, National University of Singapore, Temasek Junior College and Raffles Girls’ School among her places of education.

By Wednesday, the man’s Facebook profile had been taken down.

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Saudi Arabian Writer Tweets on Prophet; Possibly Faces Death Penalty

(Original story on the New York Times here.)

Just last week, I posted a story on a South Korean man who was indicted because he was perceived as helping the enemy with his sarcastic posts on Twitter. I cited different examples of how in different countries, the right to freedom of speech is restricted in different ways.

This story is a good reminder that criticizing or joking about religions — even one’s own — is a bad idea, especially on social media.

Malaysia Detains Saudi Over Twitter Posts on Prophet

By LIZ GOOCH and J. DAVID GOODMAN

Published: February 10, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Authorities here said they will likely repatriate a Saudi Arabian writer who fled Saudi Arabia amid calls for him to be executed after he posted Twitter messages considered insulting to the Prophet Muhammad, Malaysian authorities said Friday.

Malaysian police detained the writer, Hamza Kashgari, a 23-year-old columnist for the Jeddah-based Al Bilad newspaper, when he arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Thursday, Hishammuddin Hussein, the Malaysian Minister of Home Affairs, said in a statement.

“The police have contacted their counterpart in Saudi Arabia to determine the next course of action,” Mr. Hussein said.

Rights groups have expressed concern about Mr. Kashgari’s safety after religious conservatives in Saudi Arabia called for him to be arrested and executed after he directly addressed the Prophet Muhammad in a series of posts on Twitter. Amnesty International called for Malaysia not to deport Mr. Kashgari, to immediately disclose where he is being held and to grant him access to a lawyer.

“We are calling on the Malaysian government to stop any deportation proceedings they may have started,” said Cilina Nasser, a London-based researcher with Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the death threats made against Mr. Kashgari, who issued an apology before fleeing his home country.

Mr. Kashgari’s tweets incited outrage in the conservative Islamic country, where many regarded them as blasphemous, and reportedly prompted the king to call for his arrest. Blasphemy is a crime punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.

More than 13,000 people have joined a Facebook page titled “The Saudi People Demand the Execution of Hamza Kashgari.”

According to The Daily Beast, a friend of Mr. Kashgari, who asked not to be named, accompanied him to the airport and witnessed his detention.

“We were just watching him, waiting for him to pass the immigration checkpoint. Once he submitted his passport, they asked him to step away for a few minutes,” The Daily Beast quoted the friend as saying. “And suddenly these two people without uniforms just arrested him.”

An official from Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who refused to be identified, said Mr. Kashgari would likely be repatriated to Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Kashgari would be sent back “because he is on the watch list of Saudi Arabia,” the official said.

Some reports have suggested that Mr. Kashgari wanted to seek asylum abroad. But the foreign affairs official said Malaysia does not grant asylum out of respect for the laws of other countries. “It’s not our practice to grant political asylum,” the official said, adding that the ministry had contacted the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

The official said Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, had good diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Arabian Embassy here did not respond to efforts to seek comment on Friday.

In one Twitter post, which has since been deleted but was published by Agence France-Presse, Mr. Kashgari wrote to the Prophet: “I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don’t understand about you. I will not pray for you.”

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