{"id":55195,"date":"2020-04-20T13:11:38","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T03:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=55195"},"modified":"2020-04-20T13:15:51","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T03:15:51","slug":"thailands-hashtag-activism-targets-political-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/thailands-hashtag-activism-targets-political-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Thailand\u2019s hashtag activism targets political change"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In Thailand, harsh laws, military-backed governments, rewritten constitutions, flawed electoral processes and controls on public expression have long restricted citizens from engaging in meaningful political discourse.<\/p>\n

General Prayut Chan-o-cha seized power in a military coup in 2014 in an attempt to end the nearly decade-long political deadlock<\/a> between the traditional \u2018yellow shirt\u2019 royalists and \u2018red shirt\u2019 populists. Since then, thousands<\/a> of dissenters have been arbitrarily arrested and some have been killed<\/a> under mysterious circumstances. But the government, described by one of Prayut\u2019s key allies in parliament as a \u2018democratic dictatorship<\/a>\u2019, is now under threat from viral activist campaigns on Twitter.<\/p>\n

There are more than 52 million active social media users among Thailand\u2019s 67 million people, making it a leader in global rankings<\/a> for connectivity and internet use. There are 17 million Thai Twitter accounts<\/a>. Traditional media have been tainted by pro-establishment propaganda in the name of national security, and Facebook, which was mobilised by the red and yellow shirts to fire up massive protests more than a decade ago, is now being policed by conservative family members and government authorities.<\/p>\n

With Twitter\u2019s greater potential for anonymity and global reach, more people in Thailand are recognising it as a platform for political resistance and pressure for change.<\/p>\n

In tweets often intertwined with pop culture references and catchy slogans, Thais are now openly discussing the scandals and shortfalls of not just the military government, but the royal family as well.<\/p>\n

Some of the most prominent political hashtags, such as #LousyGovernment<\/a>, #GetOutPrayuth<\/a>, #RIPThailand<\/a>, #NoConfidence<\/a>, \u00a0#PleaseEnjoyUsingTaxpayersMoney<\/a> and #OneStupidLeaderIsGoingToKillUsAll<\/a>, have been used by millions to voice anger and despair over the state of their country\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

One simple tweet, \u2018Will I ever live to see Thailand become a developed country?\u2019, has been retweeted<\/a> more than 74,000 times. Another that said \u2018Let\u2019s plan a way to kick out Prayut\u2019 garnered<\/a> 56,000 retweets in two days.<\/p>\n

Twitter hashtag activism is slowly reversing the public\u2019s reluctance to disrupt the false sense of stability that has flowed from Thailand\u2019s turbulent history<\/a> of political crackdowns and street protests ending with gunfire.<\/p>\n

Some prominent examples came with the new, pro-democracy Future Forward Party<\/a>. Led by billionaire tycoon Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the party used virtual campaigning to bridge the rural and urban political divide and reach young voters who had been disengaged from politics. Facing the threat of dissolution, the party used Twitter to call for a rally<\/a> in Bangkok that became the largest protest seen since the 2014 coup.<\/p>\n

After the constitutional court dissolved the party in February, students from across the country created satirical anti-government hashtags such as #SSRUCan\u2019tBeLoudThey\u2019reNextDoor<\/a>, #MURefusesToEatColourfulDesserts<\/a> and #KKUIsSorryForBeingLateSalimDeletedOurPost<\/a> (\u2018Salim\u2019 and \u2018colourful desserts\u2019 are derogatory terms used to describe Thai conservatives and religious chauvinists who claim to be politically neutral under the guise of multicoloured shirts). These hashtags gained momentum overnight and led to more than 30 rallies calling for Prayut to step down and restore democracy. Student-led movements of this scale have been unheard of since the 6 October uprising<\/a> in 1976 and the Black May protests<\/a> in 1992, both mass demonstrations against military dictatorships that ended in civilian massacres.<\/p>\n

Since the death of King Bhumibol in 2016, Thais have been criticising the monarchy to an unprecedented extent\u2014despite l\u00e8se majest\u00e9 laws<\/a> making criticism of the royal family punishable by up to 15 years\u2019 imprisonment for each instance. Trending issues include the road congestion caused by police blocking traffic for royal motorcades (#RoyalMotorcade<\/a>), authorities shutting down a popular island for a princess to hold private year-end celebrations with her close friends (#IslandShutdown<\/a>), and a cinema asking customers to leave after they refused to stand for the royal anthem (#BanMajorCinemas<\/a>).<\/p>\n

More recently, the hashtag #WhyDoWeNeedAKing<\/a> was used more than 1.2 million times in 24 hours after King Maha Vajiralongkorn was reported to be travelling across Germany to escape the Covid-19 pandemic. An overnight Twitter war between Thai and Chinese users emerged over recognition of Hong Kong and independence for Taiwan on the hashtag #nnevvy<\/a>. Thais retweeted insults about their government and the monarchy made by Chinese users.<\/p>\n

This growing discontent has infuriated the government. Prayut has become well known for his outbursts in response to public scrutiny, daring<\/a> people to oust him and suggesting<\/a> that journalists who don\u2019t report the truth should be executed. Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan has threatened<\/a> to prosecute those who disseminate what he described as malicious fake news and information that might \u2018impact on national security or damage a particular organisation\u2019s reputation\u2019.<\/p>\n

On 24 March, Thailand declared a state of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic and put measures in place to prosecute<\/a> citizens who criticise government actions. An \u2018anti-fake news\u2019 centre was set up<\/a> by the government last year to monitor online content. In addition, the Royal Thai Army has reportedly<\/a> launched information operations targeting anti-regime tweets and manipulating content to harm pro-democratic entities.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s nearly impossible for authorities to suppress the thousands of voices behind trending hashtags. The arrest of a 20-year-old anti-royalist drew a significant backlash on Twitter. The hashtag #SaveAnonymous<\/a> quickly trended to first place in Thailand, and Twitter users crowdfunded<\/a> nearly $90,000 to cover the activist\u2019s legal fees and bail.<\/p>\n

Thanathorn declared<\/a>:<\/u> \u2018The feelings have evolved and there is a need for action everywhere … and this is what they [the military junta] fear; they fear change.\u2019<\/p>\n

Hashtag campaigns have sparked a shift in Thai political consciousness extending well beyond coloured-shirt clashes. They are likely to lead to much bigger demonstrations and it will be very difficult for the government to silence the increasingly vocal dissenters. The more the government cracks down on Thai Twitter, the quicker the hashtags will trend, the harder the retaliation will hit, and the more pressure the regime will be under.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Thailand, harsh laws, military-backed governments, rewritten constitutions, flawed electoral processes and controls on public expression have long restricted citizens from engaging in meaningful political discourse. General Prayut Chan-o-cha seized power in a military coup …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1062,"featured_media":55198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[106,224,157],"class_list":["post-55195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-democracy","tag-social-media","tag-thailand"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThailand\u2019s hashtag activism targets political change | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/thailands-hashtag-activism-targets-political-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thailand\u2019s hashtag activism targets political change | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In Thailand, harsh laws, military-backed governments, rewritten constitutions, flawed electoral processes and controls on public expression have long restricted citizens from engaging in meaningful political discourse. 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