Sitting petty: Indonesian netizens allegedly bully Filipino internet celebrity Reemar Martin into leaving social media for being ‘too pretty’

Ah, Indonesian netizens, what won’t (or can’t) they do on the internet? The latest episode of their wrath sees a Filipino internet celebrity leaving social media after allegedly being subjected to overwhelming online hate.

Reemar Martin’s name topped Indonesia’s trending topic on Twitter yesterday after being widely talked about among netizens in the country, most of whom appear to be teenagers. Her accounts on different social media platforms ⁠— including TikTok, where she rose to fame ⁠— have been flagged and reported, allegedly out of jealousy because her beauty captured the eyes of many Indonesian boys.

Yes, you read that right: many young women accused Reemar of attracting their boyfriends, which subsequently led to their breakups. 

I broke up because of her. My [ex] boyfriend prioritized her more to the point that he printed her photos, he’s just hallucinating.

I hate her not because she’s pretty, all girls here are pretty, no one is ugly. If someone’s ugly, it’s just according to your perception. I hate her because she’s uhh I’m just disgusted with her awokkk (note: derived from “awokwok”, another form of “wkwkwk” or the Indonesian pronunciation for laughter).

At one point, the 17-year old TikTok star had to repeatedly create new social media accounts as she was constantly flagged by netizens.

“Don’t report again,” she wrote on Instagram earlier this month. 

An unverified post circulating online appears to have made her more of a target, with some of her online attackers alleging that Reemar hated K-pop boyband BTS. This appears to have led Reemar’s fans to retaliate by leaving negative comments and reporting BTS’ social media accounts. 

The amount of hate she receives online could be worrying to any onlooker, but Reemar says she remains clueless as she doesn’t speak Indonesian. She took to Twitter on Monday to apologize to ARMYs or BTS fans for her fans’ behavior and announcing that she’ll be closing her accounts due to a “family problem,” while also clarifying that she doesn’t hate BTS. 

https://twitter.com/reemar_martin/status/1254760732802945025

This latest spotlight on Reemar and Indonesian netizens takes place not long after the hullabaloo with Korean actress Han So-hee, who plays the role of the other woman in a hit K-drama series The World of The Married. Thanks to her convincing performance ⁠— which apparently gave viewers difficulties in separating the drama and real life ⁠— many Indonesian users flooded the actress’ social media account to scorn her as pelakor, an Indonesian portmanteau for perebut laki orang, meaning a woman who steals another woman’s man.

It’s hard not to notice the sheer ridiculousness of both cases, to which Indonesian Youtuber Jerome Polin has also weighed in. 

“From the cases of Reemar and the pelakor in the [The] World of The Married whose Instagram feed is terrorized by Indonesians, I just want to say: WHY SO HYPERBOLIC TO THE POINT OF ACTING THAT WAY. PLEASE DON’T SHAME YOUR OWN COUNTRY,” Jerome tweeted.

“If you’re jealous because your partner likes or becomes fans of a public figure, don’t blame the public figure, lah. They don’t know anything, they don’t even know that our partner likes them, then all of a sudden got the blame. It doesn’t make sense.”

We totally understand that some of you might be bored stiff from staying at home so much, but please refrain from disrupting other people’s lives, yeah?

Also Read ⁠— Indonesian netizens flood Korean actress Han So-hee’s Instagram with angry comments for playing ‘pelakor’ in popular drama