Police in Bali are yet to release additional information following the arrest last week of controversial OnlyFans model Bonnie Blue and 17 male tourists – including 15 Australians who have since been released – on suspicion of breaching Indonesia’s strict anti-pornography law.
If prosecuted and found guilty under the law, Blue, whose real name is Tia Billinger and who gained fame for having sex with 1,057 men in 12 hours in a documentary about her career, faces up to 15 years imprisonment in Indonesia and fines up to 6 billion rupiah (approximately $541,000), which are the maximum penalties.
A large cache of items including professional video cameras, mountains of contraceptives and erectile drugs, a small blue ute with the words ‘Bonnie Blue’s BangBus’ painted across the front and side in addition to the content-creator’s own Instagram account in which she can be seen soliciting schoolies teenagers over the age of 18 for pornographic activities were seized by police in Bali following a tip off by concerned citizens.
But according to Philo Dellano, a managing partner at the PNB Immigration, a law firm in Jakarta specialising in helping foreigners deal with Indonesian immigration and legal matters, if found guilty, Blue will probably be deported and banned from ever entering Indonesia again, rather than prosecuted and imprisoned.
“She is being detained by the police, which means they can proceed to prosecute her,” Dellano told News.com.au. “But in my opinion, if there is an ‘invisible hand’ that requests that she be deported, she can be transferred to the nearest immigration office, from where she will be deported from Indonesia.
“You know this type of industry [pornography]: there is always someone or an organisation that controls it to make a profit, so it may not be straightforward for her to be prosecuted in Indonesia,” the immigration lawyer explained.
“Perhaps that is the reason she came here in the first place?” Dellano theorised. “Because if something bad happened, as it has, she could be deported easily. But now that it’s all over the media, the authorities might decide to first let the situation calm down and release her in January or February next year.
He added: “This is not the first case in Bali where foreigners have been accused of creating pornography content [and the outcome in each case has] depended on the strength of the ‘invisible hand’ behind the foreigners.”
In September, a 44-year-old American woman identified by the initials JRG was deported from Indonesia after being arrested and detained in Bali for hosting an ‘Intimacy Mastery Retreat’ at a luxury villa in the Seminyak tourist precinct.
The paid class, attended by participants from several countries, included ‘lessons’ on sexual activity and was deemed to be a misuse of JRG’s visa-on-arrival, which prohibits commercial activities and violates Indonesia’s norms and laws.
Last year in September, a Ukrainian woman identified by the initials VR and her toddler were deported after VR, who was residing in Bali on a limited-stay permit as an investor, was arrested at a villa in Ubud where she allegedly filmed pornographic content.
The list of similar cases goes on and on. In December 2024 and March 2023, several Russian nationals involved in prostitution or commercial sex work were arrested in Bali and deported for violating their residence permits.
One of the most high-profile cases took place in May 2022 when Russian Yogi influencer Alina Fazleeva and her husband were deported and banned from re-entering Indonesia for six months after Fazleeva posed nude for photographs on ‘Kayu Putih’, a giant 700-year-old tree behind Babakan Temple that is holy to Balinese Hindus.
However, Krist Andi Ricardo Turnip, S.H., a lawyer with Malekat Hukum International Law Firm in Bali, said Blue may not simply be deported.
“In my opinion as a legal practitioner, any foreign national suspected of violating Law Number 44 of 2008 concerning pornography can be prosecuted in Indonesia,” Turnip told News.com.au. “This is based on the principle of territoriality, namely that every person who is within the territory of Indonesia is obliged to submit to Indonesian law, without exception.
“If proven to have created, displayed or distributed pornographic content in Indonesia, the perpetrator may be charged with a threat of imprisonment of up to 12 years. Under certain conditions, law enforcement officials may also apply the ITE Law [Indonesia’s primary legislation governing electronic information and transactions] or decency provisions in the criminal code,” he explained, adding that the police decision could go either way.
“If the evidence is strong, the case can be processed through to criminal court,” he said.
“But if it is considered more appropriate from an administrative standpoint, yes, then the government may just carry out deportation through the immigration authority.”
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