Old protest clip resurfaces in posts that falsely link it to 2023 Thai election
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 30, 2023 at 11:54
- 3 min read
- By Panisa AEMOCHA, AFP Thailand
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"Live from Kiekkai Intersection, the Ratsadon are persisting to continue the protest_22_06_23," reads the Thai-language caption of a video shared on Facebook here on June 22 and presented as being a live stream.
The number at the end of the post is the equivalent date in the Thai calendar, and the intersection mentioned is within walking distance of the Thai parliament building in Bangkok.
"Ratsadon" is an abbreviation of "Khana Ratsadon 2563" -- "People's Party 2020" -- which the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict describes as an "umbrella organisation" active during the 2020 protests in Thailand.
The four-hour-long video, which has been viewed more than 100,000 times, appears to show footage from an evening protest with confrontations between the demonstrators and police. The footage repeats three times over the duration of the video.
The video was shared shortly after Thailand's Election Commission ratified the results of the May 14 election, in which the pro-democracy opposition trounced the army-backed parties that have ruled the kingdom for nearly a decade.
While the leader of the progressive Move Forward Party Pita Limjaroenrat is the front runner to become Thailand's next prime minister, he still has to muster support across both houses of parliament -- including the Senate whose 250 members were handpicked by the last junta.
Adding to the uncertainty is an investigation into Pita by the election commission over his alleged ownership of shares in a now-defunct media company -- which is prohibited under Thai election law. If found guilty, he could be disqualified and face up to 10 years in jail.
The video was also shared on Facebook, and reposted by other users here and here.
The video, however, predates the kingdom's general election by more than two years.
Footage from 2020
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes extracted from the video led to footage posted on YouTube here by The Standard, a Thai news outlet, on November 17, 2020 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video used in the false post (left) and The Standard's YouTube video (right):
The YouTube video -- a live-streamed report that lasts for one hour and 35 minutes -- is titled, "Live from Kiekkai Intersection, the Ratsadon are persisting to continue the protest at 6.30 pm".
AFP reported that clashes between Thai democracy activists and police on November 17, 2020 had been the most violent since student-led rallies demanding a constitutional overhaul and the removal of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha erupted in July of that year.
Police fired water cannon and tear gas on protesters, who had forced their way through police barricades towards parliament in Bangkok, where lawmakers were debating possible changes to the military-scripted constitution.
Amnesty International and BBC News' Thai service both said at least 55 protesters were injured on the day -- mostly from inhaling teargas (archived links here and here).
Police Corporal Pattanapongsakorn Dujmaneewongchai from Bang Pho Police Station -- near the area in Bangkok where the old protest occurred -- told AFP there were no protests at the location on June 22, 2023 as claimed in the false post.
"There is no report of the protest that day," he said on June 27, 2023.
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