A college professor is facing up to 10 years in jail for spreading fake news by employing the streets were not safe by staging a fight in broad daylight to gain social media likes.
In the footage he is seen fending off four attackers with martial arts blocks reportedly as a way of gaining popularity online.
Filmed in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, the video shows the young man in a white shirt fending off attackers on a zebra crossing.
In the next scene, the well-dressed professor is seen preparing himself for another onslaught and adopting a martial arts stance and blocking the attacker’s punches.
According to local media, the police arrested the college professor, identified with his initials F.G., as well as a female student of his with the initials Y.A.
Reports said they were arrested for disrupting public order by spreading misinformation, which can carry a prison term of up to 10 years in Indonesia.
Police spokesperson Guntur Muhammad Thariq said that the professor hired four rickshaw taxi drivers to pretend to attack him on the street.
The drivers were reportedly paid 500,000 IDR (28 GBP) and have been identified by the authorities.
Thariq said: “His student Y.A. filmed the fight. The suspects wanted to create the impression that Jakarta isn’t safe and prone to criminal activity.”
The suspect reportedly sent the video to the online group ‘Peduli Jakarta’ to make it go viral for the same fee.
Under questioning, F.G. confessed that he faked the fight to increase his online popularity, according to local media.
He said: “The video was for [social media] content. The fight was wing chun martial arts.”
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Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
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