Political battles go online

Political battles go online
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/investigation/188908/?awesm=fbshare.me_AQU6S

The social networking phenomenon Facebook is being used as a tool by shadowy groups to hunt down and attack their political opponents

* Published: 1/08/2010 at 12:00 AM
* Newspaper section: Spectrum

In a tense corner of the city during the unrest two months ago, office workers were taking their mid-afternoon break when the sound of the national anthem came ringing over the public address system of their Silom high-rise. All the workers gathered downstairs to show their respect, except for one woman who refused to leave her desk as she thought that it was unnecessary to show where her loyalties lie. She had also refused to donate money to provide water to soldiers stationed on Silom Road during the violence-plagued political stand-off. As a result, she says, she was ridiculed and slandered in her workplace for two months until she finally resigned.


In Thailand, when you make a pronouncement in favour of some political attitude or belief, the other side feels you must be their enemy - RUNGROJ WANNASUTHORN, POLITICAL ACTIVIST. PHOTO: PORNPROM SATRABHAYA

The young woman's father, Rungroj Wannasuthorn, has been an outspoken political activist for the past 38 years. Since mid-April he has been subject to virulent attacks on Facebook and other online formats by a group that goes by the name of Social Sanction.

"I'm a fighter for democracy, not a red shirt," he asserted. "In Thailand, when you make a pronouncement in favour of some political attitude or belief, the other side feels you must be their enemy. I have written many articles about the Peoples' Alliance for Democracy [PAD] over the past two years. Because of this, all the writers and columnists in that wing feel that I am their enemy."

Mr Rungroj was also attacked in the cyber world by hard-core red shirt supporters when he started to talk more about democracy than the issues that the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) favoured - namely constitutional amendments and an early general election.

Coinciding with the convergence of tens of thousands of red shirt UDD supporters on Bangkok on March 12, Thais have become increasingly active online.

About mid-way through the lengthy protest the online volume of passionate political views shared among friends and colleagues reached a new peak.

In his Asian Correspondent blog titled "Politics Drives Record Facebook Growth in Thailand", Jon Russell stated that "a cursory glance at Facebook's own estimation for users aged over 18 in Thailand shows 2,787,320, a staggering increase of 288,360 new members since my last check on 7 April. That's a record 11.5% increase in the two weeks [of April 2010] during which Facebook became a key place for political discussion, news reporting, and political organisation - it is even being monitored by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology."

While most people express their opinions online through communications with groups they agree with, there are also those who enjoy seeking out groups they disagree with and playing the devil's advocate.


ONLINE TENSIONS: Rungroj Wannasuthorn is increasingly facing cyber attacks.

Then there are those who prefer to silence rather than debate those who do not share their views. In some cases these "digital witch-hunters", as some social critics call them, have grouped together and literally hunted down those who dare express views different from their own.

They extract photos, names, phone numbers, email addresses, the names of workplaces and other personal information of those they disagree with and expose them in an incriminating and derogatory manner for all to see.

SOCIAL SANCTION

Members of the witch-hunt movement encourage other people who do not approve of the victim's views to scold them online using "as many impolite and rude words as they can" and join in exposing their information and any real or imagined evidence against them, said Sawatree Suksri, a lecturer at Thammasat Law School.

Ms Sawatree has done her own blogging on this issue and written an article titled "What should be done about the new witch-hunting cults in 2010?" which was published on Prachathai website on May 2, 2010.

There are numerous cases in which Facebook users who make a habit of sharing their political views have drawn responses to their posts that are clearly intended to humiliate and vilify them online. There are also reports from a growing number of red shirt supporters who say they have been harassed, threatened and sometimes lost their jobs because of the actions of shadowy online "witch-hunters", simply for attempting to exercise their right to freedom of expression. In one case, said Ms Sawatree, a student was refused admission to a local university because of remarks she made on Facebook. There is also the famous case of aspiring singer "Mark V11", who pulled out of a reality TV singing competition because of intense reaction to remarks he made on Facebook that were critical of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva (see sidebar).

The best known of these groups is the Social Sanction Facebook group, established around mid-April, about the same time that the red shirt protesters were branded as an anti-monarchy movement and terrorists by the government. The group publishes the addresses and phone numbers of red shirt opponents accused of defaming the Thai monarchy and has urged followers to attack named opponents. The Social Sanction group was shut down briefly but when checked last week it was in operation on Facebook under a slightly altered name.

Initially the witch-hunters mainly tracked those they suspected of being disloyal to the monarchy, but later they expanded their attacks to include the red shirt protesters in general and anyone who might agree with them, said Ms Sawatree. They arranged information in such a manner as to portray the red shirt protesters as anti-monarchy, resulting in the assumption that those who expressed approval of or agreement with the protesters were also in favour of abolishing the institution.

The lecturer said the witch-hunters have clearly broken the law as their victims have often been libelled and in some cases threatened physically. Their right to privacy has been abrogated as well, all with the justification that it is being done to protect a revered institution and extract a deserved punishment on the behalf of society.

In stark contrast to their victims, the witch-hunters take pains to avoid identification, though there has been much speculation that the PAD, commonly called yellow shirts, are behind them, said Ms Sawatree.

Mr Rungroj claims that during the UDD protest the PAD started the witch-hunting campaign in earnest by urging office workers at some buildings to sing the national anthem during the mid-afternoon break. There are 12 employees at his daughter's office, he said, 11 of whom are yellow shirts. In her resignation letter written two months after the harassment and verbal abuse began at her workplace, she stated that she was a liberal, not a red shirt, and did not feel that it was necessary to come and sing the national anthem at an odd time and that her actions did not in any way prove her disloyalty to the nation or to the monarchy.

She feels the national anthem exercise was unfairly used as a means to level false allegations of lese majeste.


ONLINE ABUSE: People are regularly being persecuted on social networking sites and web forums for their political opinions. The site above is opposed to social sanctions on Facebook.

As stated by Pavin Chachavalpongpun in his article ''Thailand's Massive Internet Censorship'', subtitled ''Government Objective: Hear no evil, speak no evil'', published in the Asia Sentinel weblog on July 22, 2010, human rights groups have voiced their concerns about the arbitrary use of lese majeste and say they believe the law has been employed as a government weapon to silence the opposition.

Mr Pavin said this approach has effectively built up a climate of fear under which those who possess dissenting views now resort to practising self-censorship when they express political opinions.

Global Voices Advocacy, a global anti-censorship network of bloggers and online activists, has disclosed that to date roughly 113,000 websites have been blocked that are deemed to pose a threat to national security. Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation admitted to blocking 48,000 websites in May this year, and 50,000 in June and July, adding 500 more each day.

With popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter coming to the forefront of communication in society today, people have become more connected than ever and are more willing to share their views, photos, personal feelings and thoughts, and express their opinions for the entire online community to see.

At the same time, in a society deeply divided and subject to demonstrations, sometimes violent protests and military crackdowns, expressing opinions online is becoming increasingly dangerous.

Punishment through society

In Thai the Social Sanction group is called Yuthkarn Long Thanth Tang Sangkom, literally "Punishment through Society". The apparent motivation of this Facebook group is the animosity they harbour for red shirt protestors and their supporters.

Thammasat Law School lecturer Sawatree Suksri said the phenomenon can be compared with the witch-hunts in the West, which were most prevalent from the late 15th to early 18th centuries.

Generally a witch-hunt can be described as an organised crusade where those in power make severe allegations, without paying heed to evidence or reason, against persons or groups that hold different views from the ruling class.

The members involved in the Social Sanction group are not identified but it is assumed that they have PAD leanings.

The group makes public information on red shirt sympathisers, some of it taken from blogs and some apparently gathered through independent investigation. This might include telephone numbers, addresses, faculty and institution of study, parents' names, names of siblings and other relatives, likes and dislikes, etc.

Ms Sawatree said she knows of one digital witch-hunters' victim who was considering taking legal action and suing for defamation, but in the end the case was not pursued. Thus, despite a brief downtime, Social Sanction is still functioning without a problem and seems to be receiving support from certain powerful groups.

Ms Sawatree said that censorship is not fit for the internet age , because however you may try you can never control the "borderless" internet.

Penalties for witch-hunting

People who feel they have been unjustly attacked online may file charges against the offenders under sections 5, 7 or 8 of the Computer Crime Act 2007.

Under Section 447 of the Civil and Commercial Code of Laws such people may also demand compensation or let the Court of Justice use other measures - such as the removal of the offending messages or posts and the making of a public apology within a specified period of time.

According to Ms Sawatree, the actions of the witch-hunters fall under the category of "wrong-doers" referenced in Section 326 and/or Section 328 of the Criminal Code.

Section 326 of the code states that whoever abuses another person before a third party in a way that makes that person lose their dignity and reputation, or be looked down upon or insulted and hated, has committed libel and is subject to imprisonment of not more than one year or a fine of not more than 20,000 baht, or both.

In filing a complaint to the Court of Justice, evidence has to be gathered through various electronic means and must be made ready to be presented as soon as possible since information of this nature - words or confessions, messages and pictures - may be changed or removed very quickly.

And if fired from work, the dismissed worker may seek justice under Thailand's strong labour laws.

The victims may also request Facebook to use appropriate measures in handling the conduct and behaviour of the witch-hunters.

Ambushed on the road to stardom

The case of Academy Fantasia's budding singer Withawat Thaokhamlue, better known as "Mark V11", is probably the most highly publicised incident of witch-hunting in Thailand. He was caught criticising Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Facebook with foul and profane language. He apologised to Mr Abhisit in a press conference, stating that he made the remarks as a teenager who does not pay attention to politeness and decorum, and agreed to withdraw from the Academy Fantasia singing competition. His performance on July 17 was his first and last. His comments against Mr Abhisit, which he had made before becoming one of the AF singers, were copied from Facebook and spread throughout public websites before gaining media attention. Despite the digital attacks, Withawhat still has many friends who defend him on Facebook.





Social activist Rungroj Wannasuthorn says that such incidents are clear testimony that freedom of expression is still lacking in the country. "Many websites are being censored because the ruling class wants us to all have the same views and doesn't like us to have our own ideas," he said, adding that this has a lot to do with Thailand's "underdeveloped" political system. "The different 'shirts' brainwash their people," he said. "It is not really democracy - just a power struggle."