Red shirts losing Facebook war

The number of Facebook users opposing a House dissolution has increased to over 300,000, while the red shirts can get only thousands.  The number of fans of Abhisit has reached 200,000, or more than 10 times those of Thaksin, ASTV-Manager reports.

A Facebook group under the banner ‘Confident that over a million Thais oppose a House dissolution’ has continually gained new members since it was formed in mid-March to counter the red shirts’ demands.  As of 18 April, the number had reached 320,025.

Other similar groups include No House Dissolution and No Thaksin which has a fan club of 72,507, I Support PM Abhisit which has 49,938, and an anti-red-shirt group which says it is ‘confident that over 20 million Thais want to dissolve the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD)’ and has 58,417 supporters.  Abhisit’s own Facebook page has 200,097 fans.

A group of red shirts have countered these with ‘Over One Million Thais Want a House Dissolution’, but it disbanded after acquiring only over 1,000 supporters.  Further attempts under new names have been made, but have not been successful.  These groups have managed to attract supporters in rge hundreds or thousands only.

A group of Thaksin supporters has 406 members, and Thaksin’s own page, Thaksinlive.com, has only 20,740 fans.

Source: 
<p>http://www.manager.co.th/Politics/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9530000052922</p>

Since 2007, Prachatai English has been covering underreported issues in Thailand, especially about democratization and human rights, despite the risk and pressure from the law and the authorities. However, with only 2 full-time reporters and increasing annual operating costs, keeping our work going is a challenge. Your support will ensure we stay a professional media source and be able to expand our team to meet the challenges and deliver timely and in-depth reporting.

• Simple steps to support Prachatai English

1. Bank transfer to account “โครงการหนังสือพิมพ์อินเทอร์เน็ต ประชาไท” or “Prachatai Online Newspaper” 091-0-21689-4, Krungthai Bank

2. Or, Transfer money via Paypal, to e-mail address: [email protected], please leave a comment on the transaction as “For Prachatai English”