To say Thailand has a corruption problem would be an understatement. Allegations of corruption are routinely splashed across this country’s papers and President Yingluck has made anti-corruption initiatives a cornerstone of her public policy.
With so much room for improvement Coconuts readers may want to check out Bribespot Thailand, a new non-profit service for anonymously posting and tracking bribes online. Originally from Lithuania, Bribespot allows people to share their stories and explore interactive maps from a smartphone app or website.
Although it officially launched just over two weeks ago, Bribespot Thailand’s Facebook page already has over 1,500 likes. Part of this early success can be attributed to the fact that Thais are well-known early adopters.
With the Bribespot application installed, users can drop a pin using the GPS of when the bribe happens. Users can also indicate how much money was requested, by which type of authority, whether the posters paid and the reason for the bribe.
The only thing that Bribespot omits are the real names of both the posters and the authorities. The posts can only be made in text since users could be sued for posting photos or videos.
Bribespot says neither they nor any authorities can track users IP addresses thanks to heavy encryption and a European-based server.
There’s also a comment function on the posts. People who join the community can comment on the incidents and report fraud if they don’t think the posts sound legitimate. The incidents can be browsed by location, date range, and category.
Bribespot Thailand is available in both Thai and English. As of August 20th, there are 712 Android apps installed and 573 iOS apps installed. The site receives more than 500 unique visitors per day. 99.7 percent of them are from Thailand. On the site, the total number of posts since the launch two weeks ago is 150, Ventureburn reports.
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