Protestors in Indonesia turn to Korean alphabet online to allegedly evade government censorship

Protestors in Indonesia use Korean alphabet to allegedly evade online censorship

As political unrest continues in Indonesia, some protestors are reportedly using the Korean alphabet online as a way to bypass censorship — a practice that has drawn attention from Korean media.

The posts, while written in Korean characters, do not make sense in the language.

Instead, they are literal transliterations of Bahasa Indonesia, meaning that anyone familiar with both languages can read them by sounding out the characters.

Messages include insults & calls for government to apologise

The messages are critical of the Indonesian government.

According to The Chosun Ilbo, protestors adopted this method out of fear of censorship and government monitoring.

The post credited with starting the trend first appeared on X on 31 Aug.

The initial message was relatively restrained, calling on the government to offer a sincere apology to the people and acknowledge their concerns.

Other messages were far more aggressive.

One used the word “anjing”, which means “dog” — a strong insult in Indonesian.

Another post also called the government a “dog” and expressed a wish for the Indonesian president’s death.

Yet another accused politicians of being incompetent, claiming that many of them work using fake permits.

Many other commenters have since followed suit, using the Korean writing system to voice their discontent in Bahasa Indonesia.

Government denies censorship as protests continue

Despite Chosun’s speculation, the Indonesian government has denied accusations of censorship.

The authorities confirmed that the press is being allowed to freely cover the ongoing protests, according to Antara News.

“There is no censorship. As everyone can see, everything is proceeding transparently,” an official said.

The government also addressed TikTok’s decision to suspend its live streaming feature in Indonesia, stating that the platform acted voluntarily.

“It was voluntary from TikTok. We appreciate their proactive step,” said an official from the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs.

Meanwhile, the lavish allowances for lawmakers that sparked the protests continue, even as 23 people remain missing.