After Indonesia’s new president, Prabowo Subianto, announced his election as finance minister, a doctored video appeared on social media showing the official announcing a cash gift. The original video featured Sri Mulyani Indrawati speaking about tax reforms in 2021. A ministry spokesperson told AFP the clip is a “hoax”.
“Now that I am officially Minister of Finance, I am making a promise today on my new TikTok account,” Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati appears to say in a TikTok video shared on November 1, 2024.
“I am giving a gift of 25 million rupiah ($1,580) to those who follow and share this video.”
The video circulated after Indonesia’s new President Prabowo Subianto announced Sri Mulyani as Finance Minister in his Cabinet, making her the only person to serve as a minister under three governments (archived link).
Screenshot of disinformation post captured on November 6, 2024
The fabricated video of Sri Mulyani offering a cash prize is being circulated on TikTok here and here and has been viewed more than 200,000 times.
AFP has debunked a similar ‘cash aid’ hoax exploiting clips of Sri Mulyani and other Indonesian politicians, including Prabowo and his predecessor Joko Widodo.
In August 2024, the minister shared a video made by the Ministry of Finance on her official Instagram account, warning viewers about fake accounts under her name (archived here).
But TikTok users left comments indicating that Sri Mulyani was indeed giving away money.
“I hope I get the award,” said one user.
“I’m waiting for the prize,” wrote another.
In fact, the finance minister has never made such an offer, said Deni Surjantoro, the ministry’s head of communications and information services.
“We assure you that the video is a hoax,” he told AFP on November 8, 2024.
Tax reform video
A keyword search on Google led to a video posted on Sri Mulyani’s official Facebook page on July 9, 2021, titled: “Webinar Series for Tax Day 2021: Tax Reform In The Digital Age: Challenges and Opportunities (7/8 /2021)” (archived here).
In the video, Sri Mulyani said Indonesia needed tax reforms to restore the state budget, which was suffering from low revenues.
“Tax reform is very important and necessary, and we cannot ignore it,” she said.
At no point does she mention a cash giveaway.
Sri Mulyani is seen wearing the same outfit and sitting in front of the same background as in the clip in the doctored video.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the manipulated video (left) and the real video from Sri Mulyani’s Facebook page (right):
Screenshot comparison of the manipulated video (left) and the real video from Sri Mulyani’s Facebook page (right)
