He gained prominence for a blog publicising his sexual activities with his girlfriend, and later became controversial for his criticism of Islam, leading him to flee Malaysia and seek political asylum in the United States.
[5] Tan and his girlfriend posed for a photograph while eating pork and uploaded it to Facebook as a Ramadan greeting, which led to them being put on trial for sedition.
In November 2015, Tan again caused controversy when he uploaded onto Facebook a comic strip of photographs of himself defecating, and then wiping his anus with a page from the Quran, the Islamic holy book.
[6] During Tan and Lee's trial, Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak said that "The insolent and impudent act by the young couple who insulted Islam showed that freedom of expression and irresponsible opinion can jeopardise the community".
[5] During his trial, Malaysia's Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail said that Tan's Ramadan photograph was likely to be the motive to a religiously aggravated assault on a Chinese man.