Thai Political Hate Speech Communication on Facebook

Abstract

The purposes of this research were (1) to study how the phenomena of key political movements affected the production of hate speech related to the political context found on two Facebook pages: Cheering for Uncle Tu Group 1 and United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration and (2) to investigate the contents of hate speech related to the political context found on the two Facebook pages.  This is a qualitative research study using in-depth interview methods. Opinions and suggestions were decoded into sets of hate speech for the purpose of analyzing the contents of the two Facebook pages. In addition, content analysis of hate speech in three key phenomena, between 25 July - 23 October 2021, was also conducted.

The results showed that the hate speech communication affected by politically significant phenomena found on the two FB pages can be divided into four main themes: 1) exposure to information that is reflected only within one's group (Echo chamber) influences the production of hate speech, 2) political warfare through black information (Fake news) is used as a communication tool of making the opponent inferior, 3) expectation in dealing with political hate speech through reasonable presentation of political issues (Counter / Hate Speech), and 4) social media literacy affects the reduction of hate speech among the page audiences.

The analysis of hate speech contents yielded the categorization of 4 levels of communication. The first level, Level 1, is expressed hatred, which was found to be the most common mode of communication on both pages. Level 2 shows the intention to separate from each other, and Level 3 is the rejection of coexistence, which was communicated at the lower level. Level 4 is the provocation or inciting of illegal actions, which was not found at all on both pages, possibly because political hate speech in Thailand and foreign countries are different with respect to identity and cultural context. Hence, this study did not find Level 4 hate speech. Based on the findings, the solutions to the problem should start from having the public media and the government focus on the creation of verbal as well as non-verbal discourses against hate speech, correcting the misconceptions of political hate speech on Facebook. This includes the promotion of knowledge and understanding of social media literacy, the reduction of echo chamber communication, and the reduction of fake news as part of the creation of information operations.