Today the Thailand–Cambodian border conflict might have eased, testing the professional level of Thai soldiers and diplomats.
But the second front in the digital world is still flooding with rumors, recycled images and doctored videos. They spread faster than any official announcement and clarification.
At a recent Burapha University forum, academics, journalists, and fact-checkers got together to autopsy the current information war.
They shared common viewpoints that the country needs stronger media literacy and stricter professional standards. Otherwise, the truth will not prevail and overrun by fake news and disinformation.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Suchada Pongkittiviboon, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Burapha University, reminded the audience that distance has been erased by the flow of information.
“The border may look far away, but posts and clips follow us everywhere,” she said. “We must learn to adapt in a digital society where information comes from every direction.”
That information highway is full of potholes. Supinya Klangnarong, co-founder of Cofact Thailand, described a battlefield where online “warriors” appear overnight, sometimes organically, other times as part of coordinated information operations.
Artificial intelligence now boost these efforts and helps to generate fake images and deepfakes that convince viewers for long enough to harden opinions. “It is not only about Thailand and Cambodia,” she warned.
“Globally, every conflict brings an information war, with truth and lies mixed until people believe what fits their ideology.”
The forum detailed just how creative disinformation has become. Among the most cited cases:
Fabricated quotes. An image of then–Deputy Defense Minister Gen Nattapon Nakpanich circulated with a caption claiming he said, “Cambodians are not our relatives—let them die.” He never uttered those words.
Misattributed statements. A portrait of opposition leader Natthapong Rueangpanyawut was paired with text condemning Thai hospitals for refusing Cambodian patients.
The party had spoken about cross-border healthcare, but the words were fabricated.
Recycled images. Cambodian outlets shared photos of firefighting planes dropping chemicals, falsely claiming Thailand had used chemical weapons. Another case involved pictures of ordinary birds passed off as vultures feeding on Cambodian soldiers’ corpses.
AI-generated fakes. One viral image showed Thai Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai bowing submissively as former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen placed a hand on his head. It never happened.
False battle footage. Thai television mistakenly broadcast a clip from a Cambodian Facebook page showing soldiers “killed in combat.” It turned out to be a first-aid training exercise filmed months earlier.
Global mislabeling. A video of a protest in Nepal was circulated online as footage of Thai villagers demanding the border be reopened during a GBC meeting.
Dr. Wasin Panthong of Thammasat University explained why these fakes work. They target groups—ethnic minorities, political factions, or young people—using the language, tone, and imagery that appeal to them.
“Disinformation rarely comes in one form,” he said. “Text, video, and image are often combined, making it harder to refute.”
Furthermore, Assoc. Prof. Somkit Phetprasert of Burapha University added that confirmation bias drives audiences to embrace convenient fiction.
Old prejudices about Cambodians resurface, wrapped in digital packaging.
“People cling to stories that reinforce what they already believe,” he said. The pursuit of virality, especially online, tempts every netizen as well as journalists to publish before verifying.
“If football fans can be manipulated to fight each other online, imagine two nations staring across a tense border.”
For professional newsrooms, the risks are existential. Thai PBS online editor Chutintra Watthanakul described how official military channels sometimes contradict each other within hours.
“What looks true at noon may be denied by the evening,” she said. Her newsroom has chosen accuracy over speed, but she admitted the pressure is intense.
Algorithms reward sensational claims, and hesitant reporting risks being dismissed as slow. “For online journalists, the temptation to be first is strong,” she cautioned. “But audiences remember who was wrong.”
Rawee Tawantharong, adviser to the Society of Online News Providers, was succinct pointing out that Cambodia often wins sympathy abroad by communicating first and in English.
“The internet rewards whoever plants the flag first,” he said. “Cambodia’s narrative reached global feeds, while Thailand’s English messaging lagged behind.” Fact-checkers like Cofact and Isan Cofact have struggled to catch up.
Provincial journalists near the border face their own pressures.
“When villagers plead for peace, we cannot even report it without risking an online backlash,” said one Isan reporter. Many in the community care more about whether they can go back to their farms or schoolings for their children. They paid less attention to nationalist narratives as they had to work and their families to care.
Thai PBS digital officer Natthaphon Thumma recalled how AI images of battles spread in June before any real clashes had occurred.
Later, during skirmishes, viral “night-vision” videos of gunfire were widely aired as battlefield footage before being traced back to routine training drills.
“Our rule is: you can publish late, but you cannot publish wrong,” he said. “For online journalists, that means resisting pressure from editors and algorithms alike.”
The forum offered many good lessons. Credibility is a common problem among officials and journalists.
For online journalists in particular, the caveat is clear that the line between reporting and amplifying propaganda is thinner than ever. The responsibility to verify, contextualize, and sometimes withhold is the required professionalism that separates journalism from noise.
If Thailand is to withstand the next surge of manipulation—whether over borders, politics, or something unforeseen—it will need media that values accuracy over speed, and citizens trained to check and think. Otherwise, the country and its media community will be vulnerable to the loudest lie.
