Social media users review key events of the past year
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With the end of 2014 nearing, stories shared on social media are leaning more toward reviews of the past year and forecasts for the coming year.
On Facebook, apart from launching its own “Year in Review” – which details the 10 biggest moments the social-media behemoth has experienced this year, it also launched “Your Year in Review” application, which reflects users’ most significant events via uploaded or tagged photographs.
Meanwhile, the most-shared photographs were of the Thai team returning from the 2014 Asean Football Championship on an open-top bus down the streets of Bangkok last Sunday afternoon. The team, led by coach Kiatisak Senamuang, visited Siriraj Hospital to pay tributes to His Majesty, who had previously sent a message of support before the footballers brought home the trophy.
The stories of coach Kiatisak’s success as national striker as well as personal stories of star player Charyl Yannis Chappuis have also been doing the rounds on social media.
However, one story that caught the most attention was that of an academic criticising Kiatisak’s lack of fluency in English – most of the feedback on this were in support of the coach.
The unveiling of the Bt7-million LINE sticker campaign promoting the military government’s 12 national core values was also widely shared.
Many people criticised the amount of money that is being spent on promoting these so-called core values and the method the government is using for the promotion.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry’s decision to monitor LINE messages and arrest people found guilty of violating the lese majeste law or affecting national security also raised an outcry on social media. Almost immediately, LINE denied reports that the government was monitoring its users in Thailand.
Bloomberg quoted Nam JiWoong, spokesman for South Korea-based Naver Corp, as denying the claim and saying that LINE “considers consumers’ privacy as top priority”.
This topic was parodied on social media with people asking who would be the most believable: the ICT minister or the LINE executive.
