A young unmarried couple in Indonesia's Aceh province have been publicly flogged after a Sharia court convicted them of violating Islamic law by kissing during a TikTok livestream — marking what authorities say is the first time people have been punished in the province for breaking Islamic morality rules on social media.

The 22-year-old man and 25-year-old woman were each struck 21 times with a rattan cane on a stage at Bustanussalatin City Park in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, before a crowd of at least 100 spectators. Executioners wore robes and hoods during the punishment. The pair had originally been sentenced to 25 lashes each, but the sentence was reduced because they had already served four months in pre-trial detention following their arrest in April. Their case began after a 27 February livestream — in which they kissed in a parked car — went viral and was reported to local Sharia authorities. A mobile phone and USB drive containing the video were seized as evidence and ordered to be destroyed. Four other individuals were caned the same day for online gambling and adultery.

Aceh, a province at the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, is the only region in Muslim-majority Indonesia that enforces a version of Islamic law. The country's secular central government granted Aceh special autonomy in 2006 as part of a peace agreement ending a decades-long separatist conflict. Under Aceh's Sharia code, morality offences such as adultery and same-sex relations can carry up to 100 lashes; caning is also prescribed for gambling, alcohol consumption, and other infractions. In 2015, the law was extended to cover non-Muslims, who make up roughly 1% of the population.

Human rights organisations have condemned the punishment. Amnesty International Indonesia described the public caning as cruel, inhumane, and degrading, arguing it violates international human rights law — including the UN's 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is a signatory. "Such behaviour might be considered inappropriate because social media is viewed by people of various age groups, including children. But is it a crime that warrants imprisonment or even caning? That would be excessive," said Usman Hamid, Amnesty International Indonesia's executive director. Amnesty has also stressed that criminalising consensual sexual intimacy itself constitutes a human rights violation.

The case highlights the ongoing tension between Aceh's Sharia enforcement and international human rights norms, as well as the growing reach of religious policing into digital spaces. Amnesty has called on the Indonesian government for years to abolish corporal punishment, but Aceh's special autonomous status has so far shielded its legal system from central government intervention.