A red-shirt supporter holds up a banner reading
Many people might think they are in their personal space when they post a picture or message on a social media page or account as a way to express their opinions.
But many cases have shown that once the message or picture is posted, it can spread and start an unexpected drama - even a witch-hunt.
A flight attendant of Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific lost her job this week after she posted a picture last week of a passenger list with all the names blocked out but one - that of Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of former premier Thaksin - with an accompanying message saying she would have liked to have poured a hot drink on the passenger.
Deputy Interior Minister Pracha Prasopdee, a red-shirt leader, earlier put pressure on the airline, saying he would lead a group of protesters to submit a letter at its office in Bangkok. The airline acted quickly, on Monday announcing that the stewardess had violated the company's regulation on passengers' privacy and was "no longer its employee".
The same night, an airhostess posted a message saying she had decided to resign to take responsibility for violating the company's rules and damaging its image. She asserted that a society could be peaceful if everyone respects the law.
The message was removed later and she has changed the page's privacy setting.
No matter what was actually behind the stewardess's resignation, online and offline, the airline faced a dilemma. It has been attacked by anti-Thaksin groups as not respecting a person's right of expression and forcing the woman out of a job.
Many people have asked whether the outcome would have been the same if the passenger was not Thaksin's daughter.
This case was compared to the case of reality show personality Mark V11 of True Academy Fantasia, a few months after the political turmoil in 2010. The boy posted a message attacking then prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and allegedly posting messages offensive to the monarchy.
The anger against him went viral. He later apologised and quit the television programme.
Earlier in the same year, a logistics company employee was discharged after allegedly posting a lese majeste message on her Facebook page.
Another victim of a social media witch-hunt was a student whose pen name is Kanthoop. At the age of 17, in 2010, she was rejected during the process of applying to Silapakorn University, on grounds that she had a personality problem after information of her views on Thai politics and the monarchy flooded the faculty. She also dropped out of an interview to enter Kasetsart University when a group of people threatened to rally on the day.
Last year she was accepted to Thammasat University.
Last year, Channel 7 reporter Somchit Nawakruasunthorn sued a red-shirt leader in Phetchburi for starting an e-mail thread featuring her picture telling red shirts to remember her face and "Please serve her right," shortly after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra took her post.
Somchit said the court would decide tomorrow whether to accept her case.
As long as political divisions remain, however, it seems clear that people will continue to use social media to express their views.
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Source: http://www.news.thethailandlinks.com/2012/12/05/stewardess-saga-demonstrates-dangers-of-posting/
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