Thailand’s ‘youthquake’: Activism in the time of COVID-19 · Global Voices
Students alight their mobile phones during a protest at Kasetsart University on February 29, 2020. Photo by <PERSON>. Source: EngageMedia / Coconet
This article by <PERSON> is from Coconet, a platform for digital rights movement-building in the Asia-Pacific hosted by EngageMedia, a non-profit media, technology and culture organization. This story was edited and republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Hope for political change in Thailand has grown stronger in 2020 after a wave of student protests across the country followed the constitutional court’s dissolution of the opposition Future Forward Party.
This decision sparked flash mobs against Thai Prime Minister <PERSON> and his authoritarian regime, which has been in power since 2014. From February 21 to March 14 there were at least 79 flash mobs in universities, according to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights group.
This wave of protests, dubbed the “youthquake” phenomenon, is reflective of growing political awareness among Thai youth.
With young people on their side, pro-democracy groups saw potential for ousting the pro-military government.
But then, COVID-19 arrived, with accompanying government restrictions. 341
The emergent Thai civil society was soon hit with an emergency decree that prohibits public assembly, moving activists online.
But Thai authorities have also been upping surveillance of online activities.
The government even has an Anti-Fake News Center that has been dubbed the “Fake News Center” by critics who have accused it of focusing on restricting rights to freedom of expression, rather than dealing with disinformation.
The center is known to censor information and criticism regarding the government’s management of the pandemic. It has even pressed charges against citizens for stating obvious truths.
<PERSON>, an artist from Phuket, was arrested by police under the Computer Crimes Act after he posted on an online platform that there was no COVID-19 screening at the Suvarnabhumi airport, where he arrived following a stay in Spain in March 2020.
But harsh measures have failed to stifle dissent.
In fact, the June 4 disappearance of political exile <PERSON> in Cambodia reignited protests against the pro-military government, with more than 400,000 retweets using the hashtag #SaveWanchalearm the following day.
Hashtag activism and flash mobs on Twitter
Amid restrictions, Twitter has become the main space for freedom of expression in Thailand. One of the viral hashtags during COVID-19 has been #nnevy, which emerged when Thai Twitter users sparked a war against Chinese nationalist trolls and created “a new pan-Asian solidarity”.
This happened after Chinese fans of Thai actor <PERSON> retweeted a tweet that called Hong Kong a “country.”
Thai Twitter users retaliated against the online attacks against <PERSON>, which appeared to be led by pro-Beijing trolls.
Soon after, Twitter users from Hong Kong and Taiwan joined the defence, which led to popular hashtags #MilkTeaAlliance and a Thai equivalent that translates to #MilkTeaIsThickerThanBlood.
<PERSON>, the Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, posted a photo of the actor with a message that Hong Kong was standing with Thais who loved liberty and standing against persecution by China.
He even called for the building of an Asian alliance against dictatorship.
The Student Union of Thailand then came up with an online campaign to “protest from home” by sharing photos or placards commenting on government performance with the hashtag #MobFromHome. This hashtag topped Twitter trends in Thailand.
Apart from using hashtags, pro-democracy activists online have also adopted a strategy called “bombardment”, or “ทัวร์ลง”, in which a user asks other users to collectively criticize a problematic post.
In Thailand, this kind of online public mobilization has been used to counter the government’s information operation (IO) campaigns that involve online attacks targeting dissidents and critics.
Achieving critical mass on alternative online platforms
While Twitter has been the platform of choice for anti-youth activists, two events that happened in close succession led to a drop of general confidence in the platform.
On May 13, the official Thailand Twitter account @TwitterThailand tweeted its first message, “Sawasdee khrap, Thailand” (Hello, Thailand!). On May 19, Twitter announced the update of its privacy policy to share users’ activities and IP addresses with “partners” to enhance targeted advertisements. 341