Thai government arrests people for spreading fake news on FB

Do you have a friend who is constantly sharing stuff on the book of faces where almost all of what they share is at a minimum stretching the truth and at the worst just a bunch of lies? I have several and while we don't need to make this political I'll focus on a funny one instead.

I have an aunt who is extremely religious and she posted this on her page. It never occurred to her that the watermark in the middle might be a clue that maybe someone was messing with her. I wonder how many other people shared the picture as well, i'm sure a lot. I told her in a message that it was a Star Wars picture and that she should take it down because people were messing with her.

Anyway, that is an innocent story, there are plenty of people out there that share extremely false political posts, or at this point in time, Covid posts that contain some dubious numbers.

If you are an intelligent person you just shrug it off, maybe tell your friend that this is incorrect in a polite way, or if you are like me you just say nothing and allow them to continue to be an idiot. In Thailand, they are arresting people for sharing fake news on FB.... and to me, that is a bit crazy but Thailand kind of plays by their own rules.

src

Thailand AFNC which stands for, and I promise i am not making this up the "Anti Fake News Center", arrested 9 people for sharing bad news stories about Covid-19 including stories about how garlic and honey or ginger cures the virus. Most of the stories were attempts at revealing that the government's 5000 B per person stimulus plan was being pilfered by the officials charged with distributing it.

After living here for just under 2 years I can say that the 2nd thing about the corruption and stealing of public funds... well....that probably had at least some truth to it but there is nothing the government hates more than to have their thefts revealed to the public.

Here is the really scary part about this: In Thailand these people could be subjected to a maximum of 5 years in prison for this - a sentence that is very unlikely to be dealt to them but think about that guys? You can go to JAIL for sharing something on Facebook in this country. This is a very dangerous idea for me because let's say that your post was something that was critical of the government? Of course the government is going to say that if fake news and threatening people with jail time for doing so only prevents people from ever questioning the government.

Keep in mind that newspapers are already on a short leash as far as criticism of the government is concerned. This stuff you see overseas where people are constantly badmouthing their leaders such as in the U.K. or USA.... all of those papers would have been shut down if they were operating in Thailand. There are many USA and U.K. websites that are blocked in Thailand because they were critical of the government or even worse, the monarchy, in this country.

So the next time you share something on your social media timeline just be thankful for the freedom that you have to spread nonsense because in Thailand, the "truth" is being determined by the government as this country spirals further and further towards being a controlled environment like China.