An American man is arrested in Indonesia for allegedly selling porn videos on social media
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An American man was arrested in Indonesia's tourist island of Bali for allegedly selling pornographic videos through social media, officials said Wednesday.
Taylor Kirby Whitemore was arrested on March 25 by the Intelligence and Immigration Enforcement team when he was about to leave Bali's Ngurah Rai international airport for Malaysia, immigration official Yuldi Yusman said.
Authorities said Whitemore was linked to accounts on X and the Telegram messaging app that promoted and processed transactions for paid pornographic content, Yusman said.
He was moved to a detention center in the capital, Jakarta, on May 16, for further investigation.
The case went unreported until authorities on Wednesday presented Whitemore at a news conference in Jakarta. Wearing an orange vest and a mask and with his hands tied, he did not make any statement.
'The immigration office had successfully identified Whitemore, a tourist visa holder who stayed in Bali,' Yusman told a news conference.
He said an investigation conducted by the digital forensic team at his office since Feb. 17, using face recognition technology integrated with the immigration system, has led to Whitemore's arrest.
'We strongly suspected that the promoted videos he produced were taken in Indonesia,' Yusman told reporters, adding that Whitemore has violated Indonesia's Pornography Law and Immigration. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine up to 500 million rupiah ($30,540) if found guilty.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, has strict laws against narcotics and the production and distribution of pornography. Authorities in 2019 arrested a British man in Bali after he sold explicit videos of himself online to fund an extravagant lifestyle on the island.
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The Hill
36 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump has rejected police reform. States and localities must take the lead.
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They risk their lives to keep us safe and deserve our gratitude. But it is naive to believe that officers can do no wrong, that we live in a colorblind society or that there is no such thing as systemic racism. In the wake of the Trump administration's rejection of its duty to protect us all from police misconduct, the job of implementing needed reforms must go to state and local governments that oversee police agencies. Here are some actions they should take. Increase police funding to implement reforms: After Floyd's murder, some progressives adopted the slogan 'defund the police.' That was a mistake. Police departments need more federal, state and local government funding to better train and pay officers and to put more officers on the street to do police work the right way. More funding will make it less likely that police engage in the kind of unlawful violence that killed Floyd and too many others. 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This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Hamilton Spectator
38 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Israel says it retrieved the body of a Thai hostage taken to Gaza when the war began
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