Indonesians allege social media posts on wildfires and haze are being censored

JAKARTA — On Oct. 15, as thick smog continued to choke millions of people, Indonesian health policy research and advocacy organization the Nalar Rawat Institute shared a post on TikTok and Instagram about the health effects of the country’s wildfires. Little did it know what problems the innocuous posts would create. The TikTok post featured NASA satellite imagery of carbon monoxide covering the Indonesian archipelago, superimposed on footage of an orange sky in Palangka Raya in Central Kalimantan province. The provincial capital has been one of the areas worst hit by months-long wildfires and haze in 2026. “All of Indonesia’s sky is covered by carbon monoxide,” the text on the video and the post’s caption read. “The air pollution index reaches 1,200, our living space is no longer habitable.” The figure of 1,200 — four times the hazardous threshold of 300 — came from Ministry of Environment data on the air pollution index in Central Kalimantan on Oct. 14. Not long after, the post, which garnered 500,000 views and 17,500 likes, was removed from TikTok, the NGO said. The Nalar Rawat Institute receives a notice from TikTok, saying its Oct. 15, 2026, post “has been removed for violating our community guidelines”. Image courtesy of Nalar Rawat Institute. According to Fatus Sahara, Nalar Rawat’s communications officer, on the evening of Oct. 15, TikTok notified the NGO that the post violated its community guidelines. The following day, the post vanished and the NGO’s appeal to reinstate it was rejected. “There was no…This article was originally published on Mongabay