IO claims need probe

The no confidence motion before the House last week fell short after 219 MPs voted against it to back Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra compared to the 162 who voted in favour of relieving her of duties, yet big questions remain.

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One of the biggest was the role of army and security officers, alleged by Chayaphol Satondee, a People's Party MP for Bangkok, in what have become known somewhat euphemistically as information operations (IOs), but amount to online smear campaigns against opponents of the government.

The MP, producing a number of classified documents, noted that IOs had been streamlined shortly before the 2023 election and focus on disseminating pro-regime agendas, activists, and politicians, with a working group of senior officers from the three armed forces and Royal Thai Police at the helm of the operation.

He then accused the civilian prime minister of failing to properly oversee the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) which actively feeds information to the state cyberteam.