Issue Date: 
Feb 13 2014 - 11:00pm
Author: 
Page3
Topics: 
city living

Bangkok—A group of young, digitally savvy PDRC protesters has set up a small tent, where, equipped with iMac Airs, they are offering to rewrite the digital past for disgruntled farmers.

“For years, we’ve been saying Thai farmers are just not educated enough for Thailand to rely on electoral democracy, and that they can be bought too easily,” explained Pretty Sirirungmonkol, 24, a digital media agency planner who decided to volunteer her time running the Farmers Facebook Movie Workshop at the Silom protest site. “But now, the farmers are protesting against the government, so we need to give them a complete rebrand!”

Tippy Supathorn, 31, was also on hand to help farmers redo their Facebook movies: “Their Facebook movies are full of pictures of them embracing the B30 healthcare scheme, wearing red or protesting against Abhisit. So we have to go back into their timeline, take those pictures out and replace them with prettier ones.”

Somchai Tiengjon, 44, a farmer in Udon, was thrilled with his new Facebook movie: “When I watched my original Facebook movie, I couldn’t believe how much time I’ve spent going to Red Shirt protests and supporting Thaksin. So the nice people at the PDRC helped me make a new movie where I’m seen looking more humble and staring at a lot of Thai flags. It looks great!”

Social media volunteers also helped to clean up the timelines of PDRC protesters, by removing any pictures of them holding signs referring to “uneducate people” or status updates describing how only those who pay income tax should be allowed to vote.

When asked how the campaign was doing, Tippy was convinced of its effectiveness: “The message is clear; that farmers are a diverse and politically sophisticated bunch, which might be a complete reversal from two weeks ago, but hey people here have short memories so it’s not like anyone will notice.”

To clean up your Facebook and appear supportive of farmers since day one, the workshop is open every day during lunch breaks at the Silom protest site.

More Page 3.

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