In Thailand’s democracy, emoticons and retweets are becoming the new ballots.
On Monday, protest organizers asked supporters on Facebook whether they should hold rallies that evening: The "care” emoticon signaled "rest for one day,” while the "wow” emoticon was a vote to "keep going!” The majority on Facebook chose to continue the protests. A similar poll was also done on Twitter, using like and retweet buttons for the vote.
Platforms like Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Telegram Group Inc. have emerged as the backbone of the youth-led movement posing an unprecedented challenge to King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Thailand’s royalist establishment. Mirroring the "Be Water” tactics mastered by protesters in Hong Kong last year, the decentralized movement is using online forums to ask supporters to vote on when and where to rally — sometimes choosing multiple locations at once.