DigitalReach on behalf of the Southeast Asian Coalition on Tech Accountability (SEACT) is looking for a short-term consultant to document the social media platforms accountability in the upcoming 2023 Thailand Election.

Social media platforms often play a significant role in elections around the world as it is a key channel for political election campaign to take place. However, often that the platforms have been weaponized to spread misinformation and disinformation and hate speech for political advantages. As election is a foundation for democracy, this is a concerning situation as it has been documented that the malicious information can influence public opinion. Platforms have always been criticized for not being able to do enough to keep their platforms free from the malicious information resulting in the election being manipulated.

In Thailand, the country has had a history of state-sponsored cyber troops that is also known as Information Operations (IO). It was first exposed in 2020 in the parliament in which the opposition provided evidence that the Thai military is behind the operation. Political critics have admitted their social media accounts have been attacked by the operation. This led to a a court case in 2021 where some critics have decided to file a lawsuit against the military regarding the operation. Twitter also discovered at least 926 accounts to be linked to the Thai military in 2020 that are associated with the IO, while Facebook reported to remove 185 accounts and groups to be linked to the Thai military regarding the operation in 2021.

Given the country’s political dynamics, the situation of social media being weaponized is not expected to be limited to only the IO. Freedom of expression has long been threatened by the use of lèse-majesté offense for political purposes. As the more progressive side is campaigning for a repeal of the lèse-majesté laws, this goes against the tide of those who adopted a more politically conversative ideology that consider the idea to be a disrespectful act towards the Thai monarchy, or worse. Some parties even announced that they would do everything to prevent the repeal from happening. This leads to a question of how the situation might become a debate between a progressive and the conversative in the election campaign, and whether this law would be weaponized during the election campaign against particular individuals or parties.

Following the recent Ministerial Regulation of the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society  (MDES) that came into effect in December 2022, the situation might also be more complex during the campaign period. This is because the new law requires social media platforms to remove content considered to violate offences in the 2017 Computer Crime Act within 24 hours, and the owner of the content cannot appeal if the removal happens. The country has a history of requesting social media platforms to remove content many times, and this content is usually associated with lèse-majesté. In 2020, Facebook blocked the “Royalist Marketplace”, a satirical group that criticizes the Thai monarchy from audiences in Thailand after the MDES threatened a legal action against the company under the CCA. In early 2023, it has been reported that the group was blocked again in Thailand for several hours.

In the upcoming 2023 election, this situation might have contributed to the election, among others. This research is therefore looking at how social media platforms can be more accountable to human rights and democracy given the situations that may occur during the election campaigns. What happens might violate the platforms’ policies or clearly wrong based on the moral standards, but what is of concerned is whether social media platforms will take any adequate actions to handle the situations to prevent their platforms being a place where malicious content harbors.  

This research is part of the regional project under the SEACT to explore social media platform accountability in the national elections throughout Southeast Asia. As an election is an important foundation of democracy, exploring the accountability of the platforms during the event helps determining how the platforms play a role in shaping democracy of a country. Prior to Thailand, research projects at a country level have been done in the Philippines and Malaysia in 2022. Thailand is the first country that a national election will happen in 2023.