A 29-year-old woman is making sure a cyber bully will pay for their actions after she found a photo of herself on social media with a caption making fun of her body.
Ploynaphat Trisuittiphakorn filed a complaint with the Bang Sue police last week and is seeking compensation from a Facebook user who took a photo of her in public and posted it online with the caption: “You bumped into me and you didn’t say sorry, you animal. You red-shirted, fat, short animal.”
In an interview with Coconuts, Ploynaphat said she never realized she bumped into anyone, but if she did, that person should have come to her instead of taking her photo to post online.
“I thought it was funny at first, but I realized this happens a lot. In Thai society, people always say they don’t know better when they make a mistake, but they just can’t do that anymore. I want my case to be an example,” Ploynaphat said.
The perpetrator, who was identified only as a woman, could face up to a three-year jail term and/or a fine of THB60,000 for violating the Computer Crime Acts.
“I’m fat, okay. But why call me an animal? Am I that bad of a person?” she said,
From reporting broken traffic lights to crimes, it has become the norm in Thailand for citizens to take to social media to raise issues. But in many cases, social media is also being used as a tool for public shaming.
A few weeks ago, a government official in Yasothon province took a photo of a young woman who worked at a gas station. He posted her photos and called her “ugly creature” and questioned “how dare it be born?”
Yasothon’s governor made him apologize at a press conference.
Ploynaphat said that if she ended up getting the compensation she is asking for, she’d donate it to a charity that helps disabled animals and the National Cancer Institute of Thailand because she owns a disabled dog and her father passed away from cancer.
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Government officer posts photos of woman he called ‘ugly creature’ and said ‘How dare it be born?’
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