In this digital age, social media platforms serve as double-edged swords, offering both opportunities for connection and avenues for harassment. Unfortunately, it is almost natural that public figures are the first on the list to face these unwarranted hate and criticism. Just today (15th April, Monday), Malaysian actress, Puteri Sarah Liyana found herself on the receiving end of such vitriol over her week-old posting on Instagram.
The actress posted a picture of her catching up with actress, Bella Astillah on 7th April 2024. She captioned the photo, “Met (her) 11 times in Brunei but we finally took a selfie on the 12th time.” Puteri have been openly supportive of Bella amidst her on-going divorce case with actor Aliff Aziz, sharing a similar experience.
It is known that the 38-year-old actress ended her nine-year marriage with the Malaysian director, Syamsul Yusof last year on 14th June 2023. She had received immense support from the public ever since the divorce for her grace and resilience in the face of adversity. However, upon posting that picture, she found herself reading a comment which stated, “Is this the secondhand gang?”.
The comment clearly insinuates mockery, meant towards both women for the marital history. Puteri Sarah Liyana then took it to Twitter, exposing the guy’s now deactivated Twitter handle. She added that there were a bunch of misogynistic comments left under that post yet only this specific user under the handle @/smafiq tends to take things too far.
The tweet garnered over 500k views, with her fans and netizens in general exposing the guy’s picture and behavior. Several screenshots can be found under her post of the same guy cyberbullying multiple people on both Instagram and Twitter.
Apparently, the user has been widely known as a cyberbully, mainly aiming his hate towards women. One netizen shared her experience of being bullied by the said Twitter handle when she posted a picture of her cosplaying as Helen Parr from “The Incredibles”. The guy responded by fat shaming her, calling her cosplaying “The Incredible Fat”.
Some other netizens urged for Puteri Sarah Liyana to take actions against the user by reporting his profile to Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) considering the fact a number of people had been on the receiving end of his rude remarks. Hence, it is advisable since our country’s law has stated that individuals who body shame and cyberbully people can be fined up to RM50,000 or serve jail time for at least a year.
Based on the replies, netizens have concluded that the said user is problematic even before the public figure called out his behaviour. Another netizen added, “He’s been like this since forever and after being exposed by netizens, he will deactivate his account and go private. After things have simmered down, he will reappear and spread his hate. Since he’s messing around again, please sue him“.
In the light of this, Puteri Sarah Liyana’s incident highlights the importance of using social media wisely as the digital world landscape is often plagued with toxicity and negativity. It is a lesson we all should learn. What do you think she should do?
Source: Twitter
Ariani Soraya contributed to this article.
