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In Praise of the King: 1.7M Social Media Comments In Thailand

Posted by timothy on from the shaft-of-gold-when-all-around-is-dark dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Prachatai.com: "Thailand's Rangers Task Force 45, in response to Army policy, has put its troops to the task of promoting and protecting the monarchy in cyber space, claiming to have posted 1.69 million comments on webboards and social media during a 4-month period of last year ... According to the video clip, the Army Chief has approved the establishment of an army internet network to promote and protect the monarchy by monitoring websites and webboards which have content alluding to the monarchy and countering them by posting comments which worship the institution. ...The unit's military operations personnel provide the troops with information, or what to post, and set them targets for the number of posts they must complete."

6 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Welcome to the new 50 Cent party. by auric_dude · · Score: 3, Informative

    I, for one, welcome our new 50 Cent Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party Overlords (Thailand Branch).

  2. CIA helped build up the cult of monarchy by Goonie · · Score: 2, Informative

    The King of Thailand has long had an officially-backed, and in early years American-assisted, cult of personality. It's illegal to criticise the king in Thailand, and hundreds of people are convicted of insulting the King every year, and in many cases thrown in jail for extended periods of time.

    --

    Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
    --Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
    1. Re:CIA helped build up the cult of monarchy by artor3 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Wikipedia article you link says the laws against insulting the king date back to 1908, long before American involvement. It goes on to say that they didn't start really enforcing the law heavily until 2006, long after any cold war meddling.

      But you brilliantly wove the a couple truths together to create a magnificent lie: that the US is responsible for Thailand's laws against criticizing the monarch. Well done. I'd wager, by your current +5 Informative score, that quite a few people fell for it. It really goes to show that any lie can be believed, if only you throw in a couple unrelated hyperlinks to make it look official.

      And it certainly helps if it's anti-American, since people just love to have a big scary villain to rage against.

  3. Re:The Monarchy In Thailand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The Thai king is a douchebag and a giant piece of dogshit, and he sucks balls.

    The Thai king has repeatedly voiced his displeasure at the cases of people being prosecuted for speaking their mind. His only failing is that he hasn't been more forceful with those elements of the government who keep on persecuting those who do.

  4. Re:Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Really, so you haven't spent enough time there to figure out that the prime minister is a woman. Lemme guess, english expat looking for cheap hookers? Incidentally your knowledge of what the king has and hasn't done is just as weak. Bhumibol ain't no kind of nice guy.

  5. Re:The Monarchy In Thailand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Then why doesn't he do something about it, being the king and all?

    Because, like many other contemporary monarchs, he is head of state not head of government; he is kept around only because he has no real power.