Gen Z are hoping to topple the Thai regime with Tinder

Offences recently added include, posting a satirical comment of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s dog, sharing a BBC profile of King Maha Vajiralongkorn on Facebook, and sharing a viral anti-government rap video that reached nearly 100 million YouTube views in August (the rapper has since been arrested).

Protesters had, up until recently, been housed mostly on Facebook’s private group feature, however Thai authorities requested that Facebook ban the anti-government ‘Royalist Marketplace’ group, which boasted over one million dissidents. Facebook complied, taking down the group and geoblocking other dissenting content.

Facebook seem to be planning to re-instate the group, releasing a statement that ‘Requests like this [from the Thai government] are severe, contravene international human rights law, and have a chilling effect on people’s ability to express themselves.’ However, in the meantime, protesters are turning to Tinder to express their views.

According to Foreign Policy Magazine, young Thais have recently been using their dating profiles to spread their pro-democratic cause, writing ‘no royalists here’ and ‘freedom for Thailand’ in their bios. It’s no surprise that dating sites have become a politicised hotbed for this cohort facing 20 further years of military rule: public protest has increasingly become part of the Gen Z identity as a whole, and markers of this can be seen the world over. For the most liberal, most politically active, and most liberal generation ever, political alignment is now a crucial aspect in the romantic choices of young people.

However, the Thai censorship machine can’t be held at bay for long, even on the theoretically more private platform of Tinder. One user revealed that they were banned by Tinder after sharing a link to the movement’s 10 pro-democracy demands. Another said an image containing a QR code linked to a constitutional amendment petition was censored for violating the dating app’s terms of service (below).

มีช่วงนึงชั้นใส่รูปนี้ไว้เป็นรูปแรกในทินเดอร์ พร้อมแปะลิ้งค์แก้ไขรัฐธรรมนูญบนไบโอ แล้วไม่กี่นาทีต่อมาทินเดอร์ก็ขึ้นแจ้งเตือนว่ารูปนี้ violate term of service 5555555555555555555555555555555555555 https://t.co/CMDSrC4Erh pic.twitter.com/dnk2mySv1E

— Skinny (@bitchqueen_1998) September 13, 2020

Tinder has yet to provide an official statement on its actions. According to the app’s community guidelines, profiles may be removed if they are found to be set up for the sole purpose of ‘political campaign,’ but it also states that its goal is to ‘allow users to express themselves freely as long as it doesn’t offend others.’

As we’ve been shown time and time again, and in 2020 moreso than ever, social media platforms wield significant power in shaping political discussion. As significant moments in a nation’s future arise, in the same way they currently are in Thailand, these platforms are valuable tools for democratisation and should be accountable for protecting the rights of their users.

It’s telling that Facebook and Twitter, which often decry the difficulties of censoring controversial far-right content, are so quick to act on the requests of a dictatorial regime. We can only hope that these tech giants stay strong in the face of institutional pressure and re-instate the right to digital protest for all Thai citizens.

And that some fly young freedom fighters find love and ideological harmony on Tinder, of course.