Andrew MacGregor Marshall@zenjournalist
Facebook and Thailand — A THREAD
As someone who frequently gets Facebook posts blocked in Thailand, I can explain the process, and also explain why it is *totally futile* for the Thai regime to try to block posts and groups on FB 1/19
While many people are critical of Facebook for geoblocking posts, and caving in to the Thai regime by blocking the Royalist Marketplace group, in fact Facebook are in a difficult position because they can be threatened with huge fines by the regime. 2/19
Facebook don’t want to block content, but sometimes they have to. However, the whole process is designed to demonstrate to any sensible regime that it’s a really bad idea to try to block content. Unfortunately the Thai regime is not sensible... 3/19
Facebook began geoblocking posts in Thailand in 2017. “Geoblocking” means making content inaccessible in a specific geographic area. The first posts ever to be geoblocked in Thailand were a video I had obtained of Vajiralongkorn and Koi in a German mall with fake tattoos. 4/19
In March 2017, this video was geoblocked on@somsakjeam’s page and on my page. vice.com/en_us/article/
5/19
Here’s what happens when the Thai regime wants to block a post. As a random example, we’ll use this post of mine that just got geoblocked m.facebook.com/zenjournalist/ If you’re in Thailand you will need a VPN to see it now. If you are somewhere else you can see it. 6/19
First, Facebook requires the regime to get a court order. Thai bureaucracy is not very fast, so by the time the court order has been issued, weeks have already gone past during which everybody has seen the post. 7/19
Once Facebook get the court order, they don’t exactly *rush* to process it. More time goes by. I wrote the post on March 24. It was geoblocked two days ago, August 24. So it took FIVE MONTHS. And in my experience this is a fairly typical timeframe for the process. 8/19
Each time content is geoblocked, the person who posted it gets a helpful message to inform us that access to our post has been restricted. It includes a link to the post, and gives me the option of deleting the post entirely. 9/19
Alternatively I can just immediately repost the content, along with a comment saying the Thai regime just censored this content. This will ensure that many more people see it than saw the original post. 10/19
When people know the regime is trying to hide information from them, they all want to see it. This is a phenomenon known as “the Streisand Effect” after the US singer wasted huge legal fees trying to censor an aerial photo of her house 11/19
When Barbra Streisand began her disastrous legal action to block access to the photo, it had been viewed six times, two of which were her own lawyers. Thanks to the publicity of the court case — which she lost — Streisand’s house has now been viewed many millions of times. 12/19
So to recap, the Thai regime has had to wait five months to block one of my posts. I just repost it, and thanks to the Streisand Effect it gets even more views. And if they want it removed again it will take another five months. And I can just repost it again. And so on...13/19
The same thing is happening with the Royalist Marketplace group. Each time it gets taken down, Pavin can just create a new one, and the situation will keep getting funnier, and even more people will want to join, and the regime will look more stupid than ever. 14/19
So the message to the Thai regime is: TRYING TO BLOCK CONTENT IS FUTILE. In fact it’s worse than futile, it ensures that the content is seen by many more people, it is insanely counterproductive. No competent regime would even contemplate it. 15/19
So are the Thai regime stupid? Well, yes of course, but I think actually in this case the government probably realise that it’s a really big mistake to try to block content. So why do they do it? Because the palace demands it. 16/19
In his luxury hotel in Germany, Vajiralongkorn is constantly furious about all the posts of him on Facebook, wearing crop tops, cycling in his underpants, etc. So he rages to his officials and servants — GET THIS STUFF REMOVED IMMEDIATELY 17/19
So then his officials call government bureaucrats in Bangkok, and they are all terrified because the king will not take no for an answer and obviously nobody is gonna dare try explain the Streisand Effect to Vajiralongkorn. 18/19
So because of Thailand’s dysfunctional system and obsession with trying to protect the sanctity of the monarchy”s image — a battle that was already lost years ago — they have to go through this totally counterproductive lunacy of telling Facebook to block content. 19/19
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