State’s security warfare against its citizens

Clipped from Popular Mechanics

In an era where state surveillance and state impunity is expanding globally to pandemic proportions, we recently posted from Amnesty International on state cybersnooping in Thailand. Another account of the state’s “security warfare” is in a recent Bloomberg report.

It reports that Citizen Lab has said that “Thai security services are doxxing pro-democracy activists on Facebook and X, [and] urging their followers to harass them in a campaign of intimidation…”.

The report is that the “country’s security services control an X account that has posted photos of more than 100 protesters…”, While the account is claimed to be administered “by a middle-aged businesswoman known as Juk Khlong Sam,” it is run by the state. The account has “more than 110,000 followers” and there are another set of “Facebook accounts with a combined 130,000 followers used the same playbook…”.

Citizen Lab said “We think it’s likely that the security services first filmed or acquired footage of the demonstrations. Then they used a combination of private information — such as government-issued IDs or other sources privy to government like informants — to identify the protesters…”.

This report follows People’s Party MP Chayaphon Satondee submitting “confidential military and police documents to parliament that he said showed a systematic effort led by the security services to suppress the pro-democracy movement through intimidation.”

Some of these activists have “faced physical or judicial harassment after their details were shared online…”. Some of the doxxing has resulted in prison:

One of the victims named in the report, Jatuporn Sae-Ung, was pictured in a 2020 post on X wearing a traditional outfit at a demonstration. She was accused of mocking the monarchy, a crime punishable under the country’s strict lèse-majesté law.

Jatuporn was sentenced to three years in prison for ridiculing Queen Suthida, and released on bail. She told Bloomberg News that she blames the government for orchestrating her harassment by sharing private details on social media. “They publish that information and encourage their followers to come after me and my family,” she said by phone.

More than four years later, Jatuporn said people still turn up at places where she had been known to stay. “I’m willing to fight my case in court. But these kinds of actions are quite intimidating and disturbing.”

That the state uses taxpayer funds to defend neo-feudalism is no surprise. And, stirring hatred has a long history in state institutions such as the military and ISOC. We’d suspect them as the state agents in this instance.