A look at what has been trending on social media in Thailand over the past few days would reveal the appalling truth about how hatred spawned by political schism and expressions of hate-filled prejudice have become a part of life for many people. This devastating trend must be stopped.
People who have allowed themselves to be so engrossed in political hatred that they have forgotten a sense of professionalism and human decency must come to their senses. Those who have indulged in distributing hate speech online must be made to realise the behaviour will not be condoned.
It is up to fellow social media and net users to be vigilant and fight off the dreadful practices.
The latest social media scandal has to do with a post attributed to a Facebook user named Pram Suansamut.
In an obvious lapse of judgement, Mr Pram, identified as a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Education, wrote a message criticising the physical appearance of student activist Netiwit Chotipatpaisal.
It is unbelievable for the lecturer, who after all is an educator, to have suggested in his post that the young man, qualified to enrol in the university's Faculty of Political Science, does not look good enough to belong to the prestigious university.
But that is not all. Mr Pram also said that the university should come up with new criteria for the interview stage of the admissions process so students can be judged by their looks to determine if they are worthy of a seat at the institute.
What hope would people have of a fair and respectful society when those who are teaching our children are essentially imparting bigotry?
After a period of silence, the lecturer yesterday offered an apology for the comment which he acknowledged as being inappropriate and potentially damaging to other people.
What is sadder and ironic in this case is that as people rebuked the university lecturer for his shallow and immature attitude, some have taken to bashing him for his own physical appearance. The end result is that the issue has become awash in prejudice.
The Netiwit controversy erupted on the heels of another shameful incident involving leaked chat messages showing a Nok Air co-pilot and Thai AirAsia trainee pilot joking about crashing the plane that former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was due to board.
Chief executives of both airlines promptly offered their apologies to Ms Yingluck for the inappropriate behaviour of their staff, who were subject to punitive action. However, the incident again triggered a flood of hate-filled and immature comments. A prominent cartoonist, for example, suggested on his Facebook page that Nok Air ban Ms Yingluck from its flights instead of taking disciplinary action against its staff as her personality deserved mocking.
Thai people are among the largest and fastest-growing group of social media users in the world, with 41 million people on Facebook, 33 million people on the Line chat application and almost eight million users on Instagram. There is nothing wrong with this avid adoption of social media. As evident in many cases, social media has proven to be an effective tool to connect and empower people. Thanks to these outlets, information is freely shared and equally accessible.
However, the latest scandals, and the many that came before them, attest to the reality that the online community still has a long way to go before users realise there are limits to the largely free platforms.
It is up to users to educate one another about the need to respect people's rights, privacy and human decency and to apply pressure on those who do not. Otherwise, the new media's speed will only serve to spread prejudice quickly.