An Indonesian airline wasn’t too pleased with a review from an Instagram influencer. According to Vice, Garuda Indonesia threatened to file defamation charges against the travel blogger because he shared an image of the airline’s makeshift menu.
Describing himself as “a miles geek trying to master the art of traveling free with miles,” Rius Vernandes and his girlfriend flew business class on Garuda from Sydney to Denpasar Indonesia. Like he typically does, Vernandes posted a review of his experience, explaining that while the cabin was luxurious, for his meal, he was given a handwritten menu on what seemed to be a sheet of spiral-bound paper. He posted a photo of it with the caption, “They told me the menu was still being printed.”
The image went viral and Garuda wasn’t happy. The airline immediately announced that the menu was solely for cabin crew and shouldn’t have been handed to passengers. The airline then released a memo insinuating that it would restrict photos, videos, or “documenting of flights.” It then later changed that statement, saying that selfies and personal photos would be allowed, as long as they weren’t “disturbing the comfort or harming other passengers.”
Vernandes attempted to explain his experience and review on YouTube, where he said he wasn’t trying to damage the airline’s reputation, but that he was reviewing the service as he normally did. On Wednesday, he Instagrammed an image of two brown envelopes from a local police department, requesting that he and his girlfriend come in for questioning. According to Reuters, a handful of airline employees filed a police report, claiming Vernandes used “a negative perception…towards the country’s national flag carrier.” They also alleged that he potentially infringed upon Indonesia’s internet defamation laws.
“I really ask for your support about this. All of it. Anyone. You all have a voice. Especially influencers,” he wrote in the photo caption. “I hope you can help share and support me through this problem because I don’t want to see that, in the future, whenever we review something as is, whenever we give constructive criticism, we can be criminalized.”
Garuda Indonesia Workers Union dropped the charges on Friday. Vernandes and his attorney subsequently met with the airline’s president, Ari Akshara at a press conference, where Vernandes shared that Garuda had presented him with two free flights as compensation.
