Tweet Share Share New trend will feed into debate on the internet in Thailand and it may well become a worldwide trend as Thailand has become an advanced internet society leading the world A new disturbing internet trend has the potential to put the internet and social media under scrutiny in Thailand at a time when even western tech companies are making moves to censor content.
The new trend in Thailand could bring new challenges. Thailand in many ways has shown itself to be one of the world leading nations when it comes to the innovative use of the power of the internet for good and bad. At a time when online activity and social media information has rocked the western world, Thailand has already been there and done that. Namphueng Suphaphon was arrested and charged by Thai police in for running a prostitution ring which trafficked underage Thai girls through social networks using Facebook and LINE.
Today, despite the ongoing crackdown, the internet has thrown up a new challenge to Thai authorites. The use of online social media by young Thai teens and schoool students runing online sex for sale enterprises targeting their peers. Social networking sites and chatting apps serve as a powerful tool to break down barriers between people and bring them together. While many blame social media for the rise in loneliness, this is an assumption. Loneliness in society began before the internet and many do not credit the power of social media as an antidote loneliness and the reduction in isolation which was on the rise in western countries before the internet began.
World debate on whether the internet is a hero or villain while Thai people have embraced it as a tool There is no doubt that social media does have negative consequences such as a reduction in the need for direct face-to-face communication. It can also encourage disengagement from reality. A huge debate has opened up right now in western countries over censorship of the internet. In Thailand, where internet use has been embraced enthusiastically by the population, it has also been tested in the political arena even before the current crisis in the West.
The internet was at the centre of colour coded street protest movements that shook Thailand from to and nearly paralysed the country before the coup restored stability.
