BANGKOK (THAILAND) – In the wake of a spike in the number of coronavirus cases among Myanmar workers in Thailand, there has been growing hate speech against them in the country. “Wherever you see Myanmar people, shoot them down,” read one Thai comment on YouTube.
The outbreak of the pandemic was first noticed at a seafood market near the capital, Bangkok, triggering a flare-up in online hate speech. This has posed questions about the treatment of millions of migrant workers in Thailand, which is a traditionally tolerant nation.
“Myanmar people are being labelled for transmitting COVID-19, but the virus doesn’t discriminate,” said Sompong Srakaew of the Labor Protection Network, a Thai group helping migrant workers.
Shifting sentiment had real consequences, he said, with workers from Myanmar, previously known as Burma, being blocked from buses, motorcycle taxis and offices.
One of the many incendiary comments on social media seen by Reuters called for infected migrant workers to remain untreated and punishment for people that brought them into Thailand.
The rhetoric reflects a global pattern since the start of the pandemic of foreigners being blamed for spreading the virus.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha this week said illegal immigration was behind the outbreak in a country that had brought COVID-19 under control, although Thailand’s virus task force appealed for sympathy for immigrants.
The independent Social Media Monitoring for Peace group said it found hundreds of comments classified as hate speech on YouTube with others on Facebook and Twitter.
“The comments included racist language aimed at triggering discrimination and promoting nationalism,” said the group’s Saijai Liangpunsakul. “We’re concerned that online discrimination could translate into further discrimination and even lead to real-world violence.”
“We know that hate speech targeted towards vulnerable communities can be the most harmful,” a Facebook spokesperson said, saying its technology detected 95% of hate speech.
Facebook came under heavy criticism for the role it played in spreading hate speech that fuelled violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar in 2017 and has since invested in systems that can rapidly detect and remove such content.
