Thailand’s cybercoup

[CrazyExpat]

It was the most social-media savvy coup in Thailand. And for a country with one of the largest number of coup attempts in the world, 19 in total, since 1932, it was quite a feat. The men in uniform are trying to get with the times. Perhaps they learned from Turkey’s Erdogan that they could block social media sites like Twitter and YouTube and still win an election. Or perhaps they underestimated how shutting down Twitter had backfired on Tunisia’s Ben Ali and helped fuel more protests.  Either way, the Thai military thought the coup had to be carried out properly: on the ground and in cyberspace.

First things first: why was there a military takeover?

The military felt after seven months of unrest in Thailand between the pro- and anti-government groups and with little to no sign of a “compromise” among warring elites, that they needed to take control of the situation. Under the leadership of the army chief, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, they first declared martial law on May 20, then followed with a complete takeover on May 22. Gen. Prayuth now acts as an interim prime minister and has abolished the 2007 constitution.

Unprecedented in Thailand’s coup history was the military’s extent of media engagement. For the first time ever, the martial law declaration was announced through its Twitter account, @ArmyPR_News, and its new Facebook home, National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the official name of the military government. This makes sense considering that 96 percent of Thais with Internet access use Facebook. So when the NCPO announced its coup, social media served as a key platform.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/05/27/thailands-cybercoup/