Online Political Campaign to Support the Transition of Power: A Case Study of the Facebook Pages “Anti-Amnesty”, “THE METTAD”, and “Super Lungtoo” in 2019 General Election

Abstract

This research article focuses on the characteristics and significance of political campaign from the Facebook pages “Anti-Amnesty”, “THE METTAD”, and “Super Lungtoo” presented themselves as anonymous Facebook pages or controlled by unidentified owners who continuously produce content to support the transition of power of Prayut’s government and attack the political opponents during the 2019 General Election. The study has been conducted through formats and contents that these 3 pages used in campaigning, including the way of Facebook users commented on the mentioned pages. The study found that although these 3 Facebook pages often use a presentation format that links with today’s social media communication culture, most of the presented content is still associated with the Hegemony of Thai society: the Nation, the Religion, and the Monarchy. Besides, most Facebook users usually give supportive and corresponding comments to the page’s contents, causing these anonymous pages to become the echo chamber where people who support Prayut’s government are brought together without spreading the content to other ideological groups. Some of the content made by the pages are even distorted, but the users inside this echo chamber still agree on that false information as that piece of information conforms to the Hegemony and the initial ideology of them. The pages keep naturing the hearts of people on the side of Prayut’s government to assure their confidence and gradually reduce the legitimacy of the political opponents.