Part 1

• From Milk Tea Alliance to the Digital Political Protests and Campaigns of the Youth in Thailand and South Korea Naruemon Thabchumpon Chulalongkorn University YoungJoon KOH

  Over the recent few years, the world has witnessed the rise of youth politics through digital platform across Asia, especially, in Hong Kong (2019-2020), Taiwan (2020), Thailand (2020) and Myanmar (2021). The most apparent in the youth-led political movements are the combi¬nation of street protests with hashtag activisms online. This phenomenon raises an important question about youth politics in the age of digitalization and its contextualization that shapes a particular feature in modes of communication and activities through digital media. Social media is now serve as a channel of communication and a weapon of information to promote the fundamental changes in domestic politics in the digital age.
  This paper aims to examine youth politics in the digital age. It argues that the important things of young politics in Asia is not on the street protests within each country, but rather an online network among the youth across the region. To do mapping youth politics in the digital age, this research attempts to advance existing discussion with insight into the cases of Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea through the digital protests of the youth in these countries. Using the 2023 election in Thailand and the …….in South Korea, the study examines youth political move¬ments in such countries as an international online network. It aims to ask the questions on the incorporation under the modes of digital communication into political movements of the youth and the responses of the state to the youth’s political movement online.
  Throughout the study, this paper argues that the influences of digital technologies on commu¬nication in contemporary Asia has been increasingly expand in several platforms, the domestic and regional politics of student activism needs to be discussed to draw an exclusive attention to democratic movements in the research sites. Compelling evidence of young protesters and electoral campaigners in Thai and South Korean politics provides implications in explaining what politics means for the youth both online and offline and it can be seen as an essential role in understanding youth politics in the age of digitalization in this region.

• Idols, Fandoms, and Skinship: The K-Popization of Politics in Thailand Amelie Wasmayr University Passau Praphakorn Lippert Wolfram Schaffar University of Passau

  In recent years, Korean pop culture has become increasingly popular among teenagers and young adults, first in East Asia, then in Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. The success of this popular culture is based, in addition to aesthetic categories, on an innovative economic strategy. Products aren’t simply offered on a market of consumers. Instead, consumers are organized into fandoms, through which they become permanent buyers and actively partici¬pate in the production process through their fan activities. This dual bond - consumer and producer - is captured by the concept of prosumers and is a typical phenomenon of the plat¬for¬mization process in this economic sector.
  The ubiquity of K-pop culture means that these social forms of organization also radiate into other areas. Thus, K-pop shapes different areas of the political sphere.
  In our presentation, we examine the last two parliamentary elections in Thailand - 2019 and 2023 - which saw a qualitative shift in the party spectrum. Instead of the usual confrontation between the two established camps - the royalist-conservative camp in the form of the Democrat Party and the authoritarian-populist camp in the form of the Pua Thai Party - a new party, the Future Forward and the Move Forwards Party, established itself in the last elections and was able to win the elections. They were not able to tap on established forms of political mobilization via local networks, but achieved their success through the mobilization of fandoms. After the success of the Move Forward Party in the general elections in 2023, the phenomenon of the Orange Fandom (dôm-sôm) was publically discussed.
  Based on a reconstruction of the emergence and political mobilization of the Move Forward party, we discuss the extent to which these forms follow the same patterns of a K-pop fandom. We pursue the thesis that the successful parties not only apply K-pop strategies, but that they have largely taken the form of K-pop fandoms. Against this background, we discuss the implications of the new structure for the political field in terms of the processes of political identity and opinion formation, the question of populism and charisma of leaders, and the question of the political mandate that a fandom gives to its idol.

• Digital Platforms and the Political Culture Production in Thailand Akkanut Wantanasombut Chulalongkorn University

  This paper investigates the transformative agency of digital platforms in shaping and redefining political culture in contemporary Thailand. It analyzes how these platforms have evolved beyond their initial role as communicative tools, becoming integral to the dynamic political participation and expression landscape. The study examines how social media platforms, in particular, have facilitated the integration of political discourse into popular culture, rendering politics in daily life for Thai citizens.

  The analysis critically examines the role of anonymity and the dynamics of social capital formation within digital interactions, especially the phenomena in which the Thai share political contents or comments by referring to the source as “ Mitr Sahai Tan Nueng (A friend of Mine)” and the trend of using the invented identity in political communication through social media networks. These factors are explored as empowerment drivers for individuals in expressing dissent and mobilizing action. Drawing upon empirical examples of widespread political campaigns and protest movements, the paper demonstrates how online platforms catalyze novel forms of activism and political dialogue.

  The paper further addresses the potential drawbacks associated with the over-reliance on digital platforms, particularly the phenomenon of “slacktivism.” It examines how the ease of online engagement risks undermining collective power in physical spaces, potentially diluting activism’s real-world impact. The increasing prevalence of online events, such as talks and petitions, may inadvertently diminish the significance of “offline” activism.

Part 2

• Donating Time as a Political Act - Click Farms and Contentious Politics Lieke Fröberg University of Hamburg Min Htin Kyaw Lat University of Passau

  Recent work on content creation on platforms has brought light to the fact that politically-laden content, such as misinformation, is sometimes created not as an political act but as an economic act for generating revenue through the platforms. Likewise, other scholars have begun to study the phenomenon of click farms: the exchange of money for likes, views, and followers. We want to contribute to these two strands of literature in two ways. First, next to an unpolitical act of posting political content like misinformation for economic reasons we observe a related but quite different phenomenon: the posting of non-political content with the aim of generating income for a political purpose.
  The mechanism through which this is possible is our second contribution: Our study is based on data collected via digital ethnographic methods and interviews between 2021 and 2023. We observe a network of politically motivated internet-users that coordinate themselves to create, click on and watch content for the (sole) purpose of income generation through advertisement revenue, which is not for the content-creator or clicker but for a commonly shared political goal.
  We reflect on the meaning of this phenomenon and discuss possible ways, in which it can be conceptualized within the current debates on platformization. Finally we consider research ethics dilemmas of uncovering these types of phenomena.

• Behind the Platform: Examining the Platformisation of Indonesian Philanthropy through the Case of Kitabisa Bhirawa Anoraga Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia

  Globally, charitable crowdfunding has experienced rapid growth in recent years. In this practice, donors and ‘campaigners’ interact to support various social projects through a crowdfunding platform. However, few studies have explored the role of such platforms, particularly in examining their involvement in screening and promoting specific campaigns. Commonly, studies on crowdfunding have focused more on donors or campaigners and have overlooked the platform’s role. They often perceive its involvement as ‘transparent,’ focusing on the technological aspects of the platform, such as its features or algorithm. This study adopts a constructivist approach to study Kitabisa, the largest donation-based crowdfunding platform in Indonesia. Since 2017, I have investigated the historical dynamics of this platform by interviewing the founders, participating in their offline activities, and studying their online expressions. The study argues that, contrary to the common perception of the platform as an inclusive public space, the founders of Kitabisa reveal a negotiation in running the platform, which, in turn, has impacted broader charitable practices in Indonesia. I further argue that the platformisation of Indonesian philanthropy through Kitabisa has sparked debates on the inclusivity and sustainability of charitable practices in Indonesia.

Abstract