Rahmat Wibowo vs. Kahfi Soobhan Zulkifli: A Legal Notice Over Online Defamation and Religiously-Framed Harassment
This post describes a formal legal notice (Somasi No. 055/SOMASI/RW/IX/2026) that I sent, personally and without a lawyer, to Kahfi Soobhan Zulkifli on 5 September 2026. This is not a police report, a criminal charge, or a court filing — it is a legal warning letter I drafted myself, laying out my complaints and demands and giving the recipient a chance to respond before I considered further legal steps. Sending a somasi is not a finding of fact by any court or authority, and nothing in it or in this post should be read as a proven allegation. Kahfi Soobhan Zulkifli has not had a chance to respond to what follows, and I am not asserting his guilt of any crime. Where I am inferring something rather than stating something I directly witnessed, I've tried to say so.
Background: a 2023 post I believe targeted me
According to screenshots I have, on 23 September 2023 an anonymous account called "ajakebonawi" on the platform fomo.id published a post titled (translated) "Fired from AWS and turned into content," discussing my termination from Amazon Web Services in a tone I experienced as demeaning — including, in the screenshots, comments calling me "still arrogant" and mocking me. The post drew a large number of replies, some of which, in my reading of the screenshots, mocked my mental health.
I did not know at the time who was behind "ajakebonawi." I'm sharing this 2023 episode here only as context for what I describe below, since I believe it's part of the same continuing situation.
How I came to believe Kahfi Soobhan Zulkifli was behind the anonymous account
In September 2026, I posted an Instagram story that I designed specifically to try to confirm who was behind "ajakebonawi." According to the screenshots I have of that story's viewer list and the direct-message conversation that followed, the Instagram account "kahfi.zulkifli" was the only viewer, and in the chat that followed, the person on that account said things I read as confirming this themselves (phrases along the lines of "using his real account" and "caught"). I want to be clear that this identification rests on my own interpretation of a viewer list and a chat exchange, not on any independent verification, subpoena, or platform confirmation — I'm presenting it as strong circumstantial evidence from my perspective, not as an established fact.
Public information I found indicates a person named Kahfi Soobhan Zulkifli is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Virginia and a bachelor's alumnus of Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). I am not able to independently verify from these documents alone that this is the same person who controls "kahfi.zulkifli" or "ajakebonawi" beyond what I describe above.
The direct messages on 5 September 2026
According to the chat screenshots I have, on 5 September 2026 the "ajakebonawi" account messaged me directly, in a conversation that ran from roughly 6:20 PM to just after midnight. In my reading of those messages, the conversation included:
- Repeated demands that I apologize to several named third parties, paired with statements invoking religious consequences if I didn't (references to repentance and the "torment of the grave");
- Statements comparing me, in religious terms, to "Iblis" (Satan), and calling me "impoverished in knowledge";
- Statements dictating whether my own religious practice was valid;
- A comment dismissive of my right to pursue legal reports against others.
I have a documented bipolar disorder diagnosis known to my family and close circle. I believe the 2023 mockery of my mental health and this 2026 pressure are part of one continuing pattern, though I want to be honest that the word "bipolar" itself doesn't appear in these particular chat screenshots — I'm stating my belief about the connection, not a proven fact.
I did not perceive any explicit threat of physical violence in these messages. What I experienced was sustained psychological and religiously-framed pressure over several hours.
Why I'm documenting this as a professional-reputation matter, not just a private dispute
I recognize that a direct-message argument between two people could, on its own, be read as a private matter with limited public-interest relevance. What moves this into "professional blacklist" territory, in my view, is the 2023 public post: according to a search I ran, searching a common phrase referencing my termination still surfaces my name, education, and employment history as a top result, years later. I believe that post created a lasting, publicly searchable reputational label tied to my professional history in the tech industry, and that the 2026 messages are, in my belief, a continuation of the same person's targeting of me.
What I asked for
In the notice, I asked Kahfi Soobhan Zulkifli to: remove the 2023 post and its replies; stop all coercive or belief-dictating communication with me; issue a written apology under his real identity; state in writing whether he controls the "ajakebonawi" account; and pay compensation, which I proposed at a specific amount in the letter itself, on the basis that I laid out there. I gave two deadlines, in early and mid-September 2026, for a response and for full compliance.
As part of the same notice, I also submitted what amounts to a student conduct complaint to the University of Virginia's Title IX/EOCR office, given his status as an enrolled student there, asking the university to assess whether the conduct I describe violates its code of conduct — I want to be clear that raising this with the university is a request I made, not a finding the university has made.
I copied the notice to a small number of other parties whose names appear in Kahfi Soobhan Zulkifli's own public academic profile, purely because they were listed there, not because I have any claim against them.
Where things stand
As of this writing, the deadlines I set in the notice have passed. I have not yet filed a police report over this specific matter, and this post is not a claim that criminal or civil proceedings are underway — it documents the legal notice I sent and the reasoning behind it. If that changes, I intend to update this account.
I'm writing this because I believe the pattern I describe — an old, unresolved reputational post resurfacing alongside new personal pressure — is relevant to anyone evaluating claims made about me online, and because I want a factual, first-person record of the steps I've taken.
#DefamationLaw #OnlineHarassment #IndonesiaLaw #KUHPBaru #ProfessionalReputation #MentalHealthAwareness
Rahmat Wibowo, Founder & CEO, InfraLoka — infraloka.co.id