An online campaign (#แบนดาราสลิ่ม) has been trending for the past week as Thai netizens campaign to boycott all Thai celebrities, coined as salims, who participated in the PDRC protests.
The campaign has already seen popular TV host, “Ma” Ornapa Krisadee, removed from her two TV shows KaiDao and 3Zaap after posting rude and derogatory comments condemning student protesters online.
Now, the online community is after all the celebrities who participated in PDRC protests, claiming that they, too, supported and are the reason behind the current military dictatorship and political turmoil.
Netizens are also demanding that these celebrities come out and apologize for their actions.
Many popular celebrities including “Meaw” Pawanrat Narksuriya, “Top” Daranee Photipiti, and “Nok” Sinjai Plengpanich have been targeted with the hashtags #นกสินจัย and #แบนเหมี่ยวปวันรัตน์ which trended on Twitter.
The former two, Meaw Pawanrat and Top Daranee, are drawing the most attention and anger as netizens are reminded of the time they went on stage at the PDRC protests.
In the clip, the two celebrity hosts could be seen mocking and promoting the use of violence and murder against innocent people during the Red Shirts protests, in which they have never apologized for.
เผื่อใครยังไม่เคยเห็นนะคะ#แบนเหมี่ยวปวันรัตน์#แบนท็อปดารณีนุช https://t.co/kBVs59Gvtx pic.twitter.com/G5vPyZP9ZS
— ชื่อโอเคค่ะ🌈 (@khxn_j) August 24, 2020
Meanwhile, Nok Sinjai is drawing ire for her participation at the PDRC protests and her recent public post in support of Ma Ornapa.
Some netizens have even gone as far as listing all of the celebrities who support the PDRC – with the names now at 200.
Netizens have also started to call out these celebrities, including TV host and actor Kitti Chiewwongkul, better known as “Kluer Pentor” to publicly come out and apologise for participating in the movement.
“Kluer krub, is it now time for you to come out and apologise to the public because you once participated in the PDRC?” the user commented, in which Kluer replied with, “I don’t think there is a reason to apologise krub; please be careful that you might be the one to have to apologise to the public in the future.”
This online boycott of celebrities and demanding they apologise is also drawing a string of criticisms and concerns online as other netizens claim that forcing an apology, threatening people, and cancel culture are very much an encroachment and just as authoritarian.