Online posts surfaced in March when a newly passed military law broke out in Indonesia, claiming a politician was photographed to encourage students to gather. However, the video shows a speech by Adian Napitupulu in February to support the party leader who investigated Graft.
The Indonesian Language Text Coverage wrote in a clip released on Snackvideo on March 26, 2025: “Adian Napitupulu will mobilize more students.
“Freedom! Freedom! Ladies and gentlemen, all the comrades are struggling, thank you for your hard work and patience since this morning.”
The video is placed at the top of the image showing protesters opposing TNI (Indonesian Army) Bill passed the law on March 20.
It was driven primarily by the alliance of President Prabowo Subianto, aiming to expand the role of the military beyond defense (archive link).
The new legislation has inspired fears about the era of the late dictator Suharto, in which former General Affairs Prabowo, once served – and saw the military defeating objections.
Adian's PDIP party initially opposed the bill but later supported the amendment. House Speaker Puan Maharani, the daughter of party chairman Megawati Sukarnoputri, formally approved the bill (archive link).
Screenshot of fake post, taken on April 4, 2025
Comments indicate that users believe in similar postsOn Snackvideo and Tiktok Stacked Thousands of views.
“This is the PDIP's plan, and they want to overthrow President Prabowo Subianto,” one wrote. “The arrest of these people immediately was obviously a provocateur.”
Non-related speech
Reverse image search on Google using the video's key frame leads to a similar video from the news report on February 20, 2025 with Indonesian media Viva (Archive link).
The title of the YouTube clip reads: “[FULL] After Hasto became the suspect, Adian spoke in front of KPK. ”
It depicts Adian's call for the release of Hasto Kristiyanto, a senior PDIP official, allegedly impeding investigations into bribery cases involving a party member (archive).
Screenshot comparison of fake posts (L) and February news reports
“This shows that our Secretary-General is not alone. He is not going alone, he is not fighting alone,” Aidan further said in the video.
“We have been present from this afternoon to tonight to send a message to our Chairman that PDIP remains united. We can still stand together.”
In the video, he never mentioned the amendment to the country's military law.
Another Indonesian media, Kompastv, recorded the protests from another perspective (an archived link).
Further reverse image searches found images in the loop post were obtained from Indonesian news reports on March 24, 2025.
The report describes the chaotic protests of military law (archive link) in Port City.
Comparison of screenshots of images from fake posts (L) and CNN Indonesia report
