Abstract
As Thailand undergoes an important socio-political transition, a process known to social theorists as ‘surveillance’ has emerged and become a phenomenon in the online sphere. Theoretically, surveillance is largely characterized by the gathering of personal information and the use of knowledge based on that information for social control. In the Thai context, this process is complemented by another equally distressing practice known as ‘cyber-witch hunting’—an occurrence in which social rebels or those expressing non-conforming views online are reproached and publicly lynched via broadcasting of their unorthodox attitudes to the conforming community in the online world. Oftentimes, this could lead to sanction, legal and social, in the offline world. Both phenomena have increasingly become threat to online freedom of expression and contributed negatively to the development of privacy rights, which is still in its infancy stage in Thai society.
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Notes
- 1.
This coup was staged following months of protests against the civilian government of the populist Pheu Thai Party due to allegations of corruption and attempts to pass an amnesty law that would provide blanket protection for wrongdoers in past political conflicts. The protests, which were concentrated mainly in Bangkok, were led by a political group known as the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), which is a gathering of conservative politicians and elites.
- 2.
The ‘yellow shirts’ is another name for the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a mass movement preceding the September 2006 coup that ousted Thaksin from the premiership. The PAD spent much of 2008 protesting against two successive Thaksin-nominated governments that arose from the December 2007 election. The PAD’s 190-day protest in 2008 was marked by the seizure of the Government House and the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok. In 2009, leaders of the PAD entered electoral politics by establishing the New Politics Party. One of the PAD’s leaders, Sondhi Limthongkul, is a media mogul, who has been instrumental in using his media corporation particularly a satellite television station called Asian Satellite Television (ASTV) as a main tool to galvanize mass movements in support of the PAD. After the 2017 coup in May, ASTV was banned from airing signals.
- 3.
The ‘red shirts’ is the informal name for the United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), a major political organization in the post-coup period. Members of the UDD are known for wearing red clothes during anti-government protests. Established in 2006 as the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship, the main objective of the red shirts then was to fight against its arch rival—the PAD—and to support the ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Supporters of the UDD are not only rural grassroots people who benefited from Thaksin’s populist welfare policy, but also include the urban middle class who admire Thaksin’s business-oriented administrative policy and action, and those who disapproved of the status quo that formed the core of the yellow shirts.
- 4.
Here online intermediaries refer to those that stand between online content and online users. So they could range from Internet service providers to online content providers, hosting services, and operators of computer servers.
- 5.
Article 112 of the Criminal Code of Thailand addresses speech offenses—insult, threats, and ridicule—against members of the royal family, focusing on the king, the queen, the heir apparent, and the regent.
- 6.
Major General Rienthong established the ‘Fund to Eradicate the Nation’s Trash’ (in Thai; 16 April 2014). Retrieved 26 October 2015, from http://shows.voicetv.co.th/voice-insight/103060.html.
- 7.
‘Open the record of Anek Sanfran, the first terrorist whom Thailand requested extradition from the United States’ (in Thai; 19 March 2015). Retrieved 26 October 2015, from http://www.manager.co.th/Politics/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9580000032372.
- 8.
The event, which will take place on 11 December 2015, will be led by HRH Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and will cover more than 20 km of collective bicycling in and around Bangkok. More than 100,000 people are expected to join the bike tour. Apart from the communal bike ride, the event will also feature outdoor performance of traditional Khon-masked dances from the Ramayana epic, a jazz concert, and an exhibition to honor HM the King.
- 9.
Sasivimol: posted messages on Facebook (2014). Retrieved 21 October 2015, from http://freedom.ilaw.or.th/en/case/681#progress_of_case.
- 10.
‘Royalists Urge Police to Prosecute Chiang Mai Woman for lèse majesté’ (n.d.). Retrieved 21 October 2015, from http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/news/royalists-urge-police-to-prosecute-chiang-mai-woman-for-lese-majeste/.
- 11.
For this and the following, see Sasiwimol: posted messages on Facebook (n.d.). Retrieved 21 October 2015, from http://freedom.ilaw.or.th/th/case/681#progress_of_case.
- 12.
‘Aree: Facebook with black dress’ (in Thai; 2014). Retrieved 21 October 2015, from http://freedom.ilaw.or.th/th/case/642#progress_of_case.
- 13.
‘Jaruwan: Posting lèse majesté message on Facebook’ (2014). Retrieved 21 October 2015, from http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/4773.
- 14.
‘Jaruwan: Posting lèse majesté message on Facebook’ (2014). Retrieved 21 October 2015, from http://freedom.ilaw.or.th/en/case/641#progress_of_case.
- 15.
For this and the following, see ‘Piya’ (2014). Retrieved 21 October 2015, from http://freedom.ilaw.or.th/en/case/645.
- 16.
‘Piya’ (2014). Retrieved 21 October 2015, from http://freedom.ilaw.or.th/th/case/645.
- 17.
Thailand’s modern politics has been intermittent with coups. Since 1932 when the country changed its regime from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy, there have been 19 coups, of which 12 were successful.
- 18.
- 19.
- 20.
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Ramasoota, P. (2016). Online Social Surveillance and Cyber-Witch Hunting in Post-2014 Coup Thailand. In: Banpasirichote Wungaeo, C., Rehbein, B., Wun'gaeo, S. (eds) Globalization and Democracy in Southeast Asia. Frontiers of Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57654-5_13
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