Thai anti-government protesters are finding new ways to highlight their struggle against the Prayut Chan-ocha government including alternative social media platforms and online dating applications.
Student-led protests have gripped the country over the past two months with students calling for a rewrite of the military-drafted constitution, the dissolution of parliament, and the end to the harassment of activists by the state.
As the rallies continue, many speakers are beginning to touch upon the role of the Thai monarchy in politics and running into censorship issues. To bypass government banning of social media posts and spread their message to the world, the students have resorted to alternative means to get the word out.
Students have begun commenting on popular Twitch gaming streams about issues related to politics.
When Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak was arrested on Friday night, popular game streamers in Thailand found their streams populated with messages of support for Penguin and calls to join an upcoming rally on August 16.
People sympathetic to the anti-government movement have also begun flooding popular online video games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Valorant, League of Legends, PUBG, and Dota 2 with chat spamming messages like #FreeYouth, #FreeThailand and #WhatsHappeninginThailand.
Other’s have taken to dating applications to spread their message. Profiles have been co-opted to spread the message like the one below, which was found on Tinder.
Web boards like SoccerSuck, Reddit and Pantip have also become popular forums for those looking for political news and to join a discussion about current events.
Others, like noted dissident graffiti artist Headache Stencil, have begun using street art to highlight the grievances of the movement and the corruption of the Prayut administration.
So far, the government has not responded to the alternative media platforms, preferring instead to concentrate on Twitter and Facebook with the digital ministry asking from cooperation from the media giants in helping take down posts that were inflammatory or violated the country’s lese majeste laws.
According to Facebook’s transparency report, the government has requested 107 take downs of offensive content in the second half of 2019, a spike of nearly 300 per cent from the first half of the year.
As the student-led demonstrations keep going, look for even more requests once statistics are released this year.
