Slashdot Mirror
In Praise of the King: 1.7M Social Media Comments In Thailand
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."
His Majesty King Bhumibol is the most respected one! The monarchy brings great glory to Thailand! Long live the King!
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.