Influencer Slammed For Auctioning Virginity For COVID

This Indonesian Instagram influencer has caused controversy by offering to sell off her virginity for more than 100,000 GBP to raise money for COVID-19 frontliners.

Indonesian influencer Sarah Salsabila, who goes by Sarah Keihl online, reportedly made the offer in a video on Instagram where she said she was willing to auction off her virginity with a starting price of 2 billion IDR (110,035 GBP).

She said in the video: “A pretty tough decision in my life. Maybe some of you understand this, but I’ve decided I’ll do so to raise funds to help those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Credit: CEN/@sarahkeihl

The influencer said that the proceeds of the auction would go to COVID-19 frontliners and those affected financially by the pandemic.

She reportedly told her 232,000 followers that the auction would begin at 9pm Indonesian time yesterday (Wednesday).

Salsabila reportedly faced a backlash from users in Indonesia, a Muslim country, and has now said the auction was not real but just a piece of “satire” aimed at people not taking coronavirus seriously enough.

Credit: CEN
Sarah Keihl’s post

Explaining the stunt, she said: “I’m sorry for creating the controversy. In truth, the virginity auction was my idea of satire of those who aren’t sensitive to the situation.”

She said she and her family have been receiving abuse over her post and offered to pay for 1,000 pieces of grocery aid as a way of apologising, adding that the money is ‘halal’ and that she had “never sold myself or my dignity”.

She added: “I’m really sorry for all the inconvenience caused. I didn’t mean to come up with such degrading post and I didn’t even mean to sell off my virginity in the first place.”

However, an apparently leaked conversation between Salsabila and a friend on Instagram reportedly shows her saying that the stunt had been staged by her and her manager, who has not been named, with an apology already planned in advance.


To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below.
Story By: Alex CopeSub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Central European News

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