In response to the 2020–21 youth-led protests throughout Thailand, which were largely fueled by discourse on digital platforms, the government launched a sweeping program of technological suppression. Smear campaigns were orchestrated to discredit young activists, laws were weaponized to criminalize their activities, and surveillance technologies were deployed to keep tabs on them.
In A Thousand Cuts, Janjira Sombatpoonsiri traces the historical development of repression in Thailand, detailing how “traditional” methods of repression have been merged with digital tools to maintain the status quo since 2005, when mass mobilization started to move online. By examining the adverse effects of digital repression on individual activists—their mental health, private lives, and socioeconomic resources—Sombatpoonsiri also offers one of the first systematic analyses of the “reception” side of repression, shedding light on its detrimental consequences for activists and mass movements as a whole.
