Alpantuni is the name of an Instagram account that depicts the life of the titular main character, who is a gay Muslim man in Southeast Asia. There is speculation over whether the creator is Malaysian or Indonesian; when interviewed, the creator of the comic stated that they didn't wish to elaborate whether they were from Indonesia or Malaysia. [1]
The account was created in November 2018, but rapidly gained attention in February 2019 by online Indonesians decrying it for its portrayal of homosexuality. [2] The Indonesian Ministry of Communications declared the comics to be pornographic and violating Article 27 paragraph 1 of the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions Law on the distribution of pornographic content. [2] The account was no long accessible on February 13, 2019; [3] [2] the Indonesian government claimed that Instagram had removed the account after mass outcry from Indonesian internet users. [2] Instagram denies this, and put forth a number of alternative reasons why the account was no longer accessible. [2] The creator of the account claims that though Instagram didn't obey the Ministry's request, it did remove a number of posts for hate speech; however, the creator states that they made the choice to delete the account of fear of putting their loved ones in harm. [1]