BALI TO DEPORT SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS

In a prank video, a woman is seen walking around a Bali supermarket with a painted-on blue mask

TWO social media influencers who made a prank video that featured one sporting a painted-on virus mask — breaking Covid-19 rules — will be deported from Bali.

The Jakarta Post reported that authorities on the island, on Friday, said they would deport United States-based Taiwanese YouTuber Josh Paler Lin and Russian influencer Leia Se over the stunt that went viral and sparked outrage among Netizens.

In Bali, foreigners can be slapped with a fine of one million rupiah for not wearing a mask in public, and face deportation for the second offence, but authorities decided to boot out the pair instead.

In the video, Se was seen walking in a Bali supermarket with the painted-on blue mask, where Lin then expressed surprise that few people seemed to notice.

Earlier, the store security initially had turned away the maskless Russian, before she applied make-up that resembled a mask.

The clip has sparked outrage in Bali, where virus cases and deaths have been on the increase.

“We plan to deport them. We are waiting until flights to their countries are available,” said Jamaruli Manihuruk, head of Bali’s legal and justice office.

Lin, 32, who uploads prank videos to his 3.4 million subscribers on YouTube, has since deleted the clip and apologised.

“I made this video to entertain people because I’m a content creator and it is my job to entertain people. However, I did not realise that what I did could bring a lot of negative comments,” he said in his online apology.