Online marketplace giant Shopee apologized after coming under fire over a controversial paid post that made fun of sexual harassment victims, which prompted netizens to trend #UninstallShopee on Twitter.
The paid post – which was recently uploaded on Indonesia's biggest gossip page on Instagram, Lambe Turah – appeared to mimic viral posts from sexual harassment victims in the past, featuring screenshots of the victim's social media posts that called on other women to be careful when using dating apps.
One slide of the paid post showed a screen recording illustrating predatory dating behavior, in which the man insisted on sending a video – implied to be sexual in nature – to the woman. The video, it turned out, was a Shopee ad.
The post on Lambe Turah has since been taken down following a huge backlash online. On Twitter, netizens rallied the #UninstallShopee hashtag in light of the insensitive ad.
Shopee Indonesia Director Handika Jahja issued an official statement of apology, which included recognition that sexual assault is a matter that needs to be handled with great care and seriousness.
"For that, we fully apologize for the use of the materials that were not appropriate for marketing material," Handhika said in the statement yesterday.
"We thank you for the criticism and input so that we can do better and be more careful in the future, so that similar cases won't happen again."