Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva has criticised the Office of the Election Commission of Thailand for lacking a policy to control "fake news" and hate speech expected to be rife in social media in the upcoming general-election.
"Except for the ban on any politically involved posts three days before the date of a general election, I haven't seen any active policy or measures from the election commission relating to the use of online applications and social media for general election campaign," Mr Abhisit said in a forum titled "Can Social Media Change Politics?", organised by the Isra Institute's 7th training course for broadcasting in the middle-level at the Dhurakij Pundit University.
The use of social media has become a major apparatus for political campaigns. Mr Abhisit raised the example of the influence of social media during the latest US election in which "fake news" about Hillary Clinton was spread in swing states.
Mr Abhisit said the worrying case is hate speech directed to certain political parties -- something the EC did not mention.
"Hate speech and fabricated information are my major concerns when it comes down to the role of social media [in the next national election]. Social media will become a significant tool for political games," he said.
Mr Abhisit said the highly anticipated national election in February "would be important in many ways". He said it would be first national vote in seven years after a decade of political hiccups and political conflicts. There would be about 7 million first-time voters, many of whom were children at the time of the last election and who have been raised on social media and other online communication.
"Social media will be a very important stage for the political game when the mainstream media has lost its power to set the agenda," Mr Abhisit said.
He said another worrying aspect is that social media can influence voters to prefer decisive authoritarians. Mr Abhisit cited international studies that show users of social media -- especially those exposed to clips of provocative law violations -- often want to see extreme and quick penalties for offenders. Mr Abhisit said this could lead people to vote for politicians with a risk of becoming dictators, who initially use populist policies to encourage a following.
Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, vice-rector for Administration and Sustainability of Thammasat University, said the country was gearing towards an era oof "smart democracy", in which people use social media to lobby for policy or monitor wrongdoings.
In a so-called "smart democracy", social media would be more than a newscaster, and become an agenda-setters, such as the case of CSILAW social media site which brought attention to Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan's pricey wristwatches.
But Prab Laoharojanaphant, the founder of Rethink Thailand, a youth-oriented activist group, said social media does not yet have enough influence to change the political landscape. He said most online petitions were not successful.