Chronology of Maell Lee Accused of Insulting Greysia Polii Until Deleting Photos and Giving Clarification

Kapanlagi.com - Youtuber and comedian Maell Lee has angered netizens and fans of Indonesian badminton. How could he not, this man who was raised in Medan, North Sumatra, replaced the photo of the women's doubles athlete who had just won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, Greysia Polii, with his own face.

The photo was uploaded on his social media account. The post received a lot of criticism from netizens. How could he not, he was accused of insulting Greysia Polii who had just brought glory to Indonesia at the Olympics by winning gold with her partner, Apriyani Rahayu, on Monday (8/2).

Many netizens felt offended and upset by Maell Lee's post. Although the post was eventually deleted, many netizens called on Maell Lee to clarify and apologize.

"He edited the face of someone who has brought pride to Indonesia", commented one netizen.

1. Upload the Correct Photo

After being criticized by netizens, Maell Lee then deleted the post. He immediately replaced it with the original photo of Apriyani Rahayu-Greysia Polii. In the caption of the post, he also congratulated both of them.

"This is the right one. Congratulations @r.apriyanig @greyspolii, Indonesia is proud of you," wrote Maell Lee.

Netizens were not satisfied with that. In the comment section, a series of criticisms from netizens who were still angry about Maell Lee's previous post were found.

"It's strange to keep changing people's photos!! You should be proud, why make it funny!!" one angry comment from a netizen.

2. Provide Clarification

Finally, on Tuesday (3/8), Maell Lee clarified through his Instagram post. He revealed that the post was his happy reaction to Indonesia's badminton players winning the gold medal. He mentioned that he initially had no intention of insulting Greysia Polii at all.

"I want to respond to my post that is being talked about, that the post is actually just my euphoria because Indonesia won and got the gold medal. It's my way of appreciating it by posting in my own comedic style without any intention of insulting anyone, especially what you call your heroes, they are my heroes too.", wrote Maell.

3. Apologize

Due to the increasingly complicated polemic, he decided to apologize to the offended netizens and delete the post. He chose to do so to maintain a conducive situation and avoid misunderstandings.

"Here, maybe people can't accept my jokes, so with all my heart, I apologize to @greyspolii and the offended netizens in general, because this is purely not intended to insult, because I replaced the photo of @greyspolii sticking out his tongue with a photo of me sticking out my tongue with no intention of disrespect, and my caption here is "Congratulations @r.apriyanig @greyspolii Indonesia is proud of you" and before that, I also posted an IG story (slide 2) to show that I am proud we won," he continued.

"However, due to the polemic that occurred, I decided to delete the post with the aim of maintaining a conducive environment and avoiding misunderstandings. Once again, I apologize sincerely if my jokes are not pleasing. Thank you for your understanding. Keep moving forward, Indonesian sports," he concluded.

Kudos to Maell Lee for providing clarification and apologizing. This can be a lesson to be wiser in expressing opinions on social media, regardless of the truth of the facts that occur. Hopefully, incidents like this will not happen again in the future.

(kpl/ums)