Court lifts veil on army's IO ops

The army insisted in court that the information operations (IO) orders against dissenters were fake. The court decided they were real. However, the army has faced no legal consequences.

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In the country's first citizens' lawsuit against the army's IO operations, three public-interest activists — Sarinee Achavanuntakul, Yingcheep Atchanont, and Winyu Wongsurawat — filed a case with the Central Administrative Court in March 2021, accusing the Royal Thai Army and its commander of running organised online campaigns to attack them.

Their evidence included Twitter reports showing that many fake accounts used to attack them were linked to the army, along with documents ordering army personnel to conduct IO campaigns.

Indeed, Twitter (now X) in 2020 removed 926 accounts linked to Royal Thai Army information operations targeting Thai civilians.

The plaintiffs sought a court order to stop these IO operations.

During the past few years, the army has been accused of orchestrating cyber warfare against pro-democracy and human rights activists. It has always denied the charge. The court ruling, however, makes it harder for them to do do.

On Oct 30, the Central Administrative Court said the army has an IO unit, and the IO orders against political dissenters were real.

The military must never run cyber campaigns against its own citizens, as the people are not enemies of the nation, the verdict said.