Pheua Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit recently met with legal experts to discuss taking legal action against people using the Guy Fawkes mask (made popular by the movie V for Vendetta) as their Facebook profile picture.

You have to admit, it can all get very confusing when you’re commenting on a thread about how “Yingluck really stupid and she plan the Southern blackout!!!!” and you’re talking to an equal sign, Guy Fawkes, a quote, a Thai flag, and another Guy Fawkes who disagrees vehemently with his twin. Not that we’re any better. If you were to draw conclusions about the BK Magazine office based on our Facebook profiles alone, half the women here are actually cats.

Still, Prompong should realize that the right to express one’s self under pseudonyms, or even anonymously, is ancient and universal. Back in Pompeii, scribblings in public urinals have survived to this day. A certain Prompongicus seems to have been particularly commented upon. “Prompongicus, you can suckus my cockus,” reads one graffiti. “Prompongicus = assholeum,” reads another. Latin slang is particularly difficult to decipher but it seems he was a well-loved and respected citizen.

Guy Fawkes, too, was a true gentleman. Rather than hacking into his government’s website, he did the polite thing, which was to stuff the basement of the parliament with gunpowder and try to blow it up. He is now sometimes described as “the last man to enter the parliament with honest intentions.” (Note: threatening to blow up parliament, on the other hand, is banned by the Computer Crimes Act.)

In short, Prompong needs to relax. Anonymity isn’t anything to be worried about. It’s all just good-natured ribbing. In fact, Guy Fawkes’ arrest and execution is still celebrated to this day, with the British respectfully paying tribute to their leaders, like Margaret Thatcher, by setting their effigy on fire. Just think of the tourism potential if we could do that here: thousands of little MPs, burning into the night sky, like so many floating lanterns.

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