The Criminal Court today (21 December) dismissed a royal defamation charge filed against online influencer Aniwat Prathumthin, also known by the internet alias “Nara Crepe Katoei”, for video advertisements o the online shopping platform Lazada.

The videos feature Aniwat and two other online influencers, Kittikoon “Mom Dew” Thammakitirad and Thidaporn “Nurat” Chaokuwiang and were released on Aniwat’s TikTok account in May 2022 to promote a Lazada sales campaign. The first video features Thidaporn in traditional Thai dress sitting in a wheelchair with Kittikhun, also in traditional Thai dress, standing next to her as Aniwat is giving her skincare products. The second video features Thidaporn, still in traditional Thai dress and sitting in a wheelchair, while Aniwat accuses her of stealing her clothes and recommends that she buy clothes from Lazada during their 5.5. sales campaign. Thidaporn then gets up from her wheelchair in shock.

Members of ultra-royalist groups said the videos made fun of members of the royal family, thought to be Queen Sirikit, King Vajiralongkorn’s mother, and Princess Chulabhorn, the King’s youngest sister, and launched a boycott campaign against the platform. Lazada and Intersect Design Factory, the media agency in charge of producing the videos, later issued a public apology for the videos.

Srisuwan Janya, an activist known as Thailand’s “complainer-in-chief”, filed a royal defamation complaint against the three influencers and the two companies.

The Criminal Court today (21 December) ruled to dismiss charges against Aniwat on the grounds that the content of the videos does not constitute an offence under the royal defamation law, because they were produced as part of a marketing campaign and contain no “anti-monarchy symbols,” such as one that communicates the demand to amend the royal defamation law. The speech used in the videos are also normal speech, and the videos did not use the personal coat of arms of a member of the royal family, while traditional Thai dress is something anyone can wear.

The court said that while the prosecution presented evidence that the videos are an act of parody, they do not constitute defamation since the defendants were only playing a role to promote their products, although the content may be seen as inappropriate by some groups of people.

Although the charges against Aniwat were dismissed, she remains in prison as she is currently being detained for fraud.

Witness examination hearings in the trial against Thidaporn are scheduled for August – September 2024. Meanwhile, Kittikoon left Thailand in July 2023 and is seeking political asylum in Germany.