- May 4, 2021
- 3,362
SahaiLink
SahaiLink is Thailand’s most popular online dating and social networking website and mobile application since 2003. Developed by a group of college students, it won a national programming competition in 2002 and received direct funding from the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society. Currently, the platform boasts 51 million active monthly users. Such a massive user base comes from its dedication to moving beyond a casual dating platform to encompass life-long partner matching and social networking services. SahaiLink serves as a vital function of Thailand’s public sphere, where government officials, community members, cooperative leaders, and ordinary citizens to develop casual, platonic, romantic, sexual, or professional relationships. Notably, The Nation has described it as Thailand’s version of a Marxist-influenced social media service.
Since its rise in popularity in late 2004, Thai citizens have grown accustomed to a new digital culture. Many people in Thailand now find themselves reconnecting with old friends, mentors, or family members because of SahaiLink’s domestic revolutionary innovation. Ongoing dialogues in Thailand involving such a platform include potential harms to child development due to immature access to social media and tension with the confederal agreement on regular digital detox. Given such sensitivity, Thailand’s National Ethical Oversight Board has since regulated SahaiLink, developed to avoid introducing addictive features after a democratic deliberation period.
SahaiLink offers its users with blogging tools. Internet personalities, politicians, state institutions, cooperative enterprises, and news organizations frequently employ such a service to propagate information and findings. Since 2005, the platform has offered video embedding and enlarged cloud storage services after securing significant confederal funding from a national technology exhibition. According to one study from Equitable Science Advancement Lab, thirty-eight percent of the Thai population receives news from the digital landscape such as SahaiLink, compared to the other sixty-two percent that access information from radio, newspaper, and television.
Moreover, SahaiLink has developed robust anti-surveillance protocols per the People’s Data Privacy Act (PDPA 2004). Its dynamic fact-checking community regularly flagged state-controlled and party-controlled media such as NBT and the Communist Daily, respectively, for propagating biased, partisan information. They rely on public broadcaster Thai PBS, independent publications such as The Nation, and various public institutions or cooperative organizations to provide corrected information. Despite Thailand’s socialist culture, SahaiLink has demonstrated remarkable tolerance toward diverse perspectives coming from non-Marxist communist, anarchist, and techno-utopian circles.
Since its rise in popularity in late 2004, Thai citizens have grown accustomed to a new digital culture. Many people in Thailand now find themselves reconnecting with old friends, mentors, or family members because of SahaiLink’s domestic revolutionary innovation. Ongoing dialogues in Thailand involving such a platform include potential harms to child development due to immature access to social media and tension with the confederal agreement on regular digital detox. Given such sensitivity, Thailand’s National Ethical Oversight Board has since regulated SahaiLink, developed to avoid introducing addictive features after a democratic deliberation period.
SahaiLink offers its users with blogging tools. Internet personalities, politicians, state institutions, cooperative enterprises, and news organizations frequently employ such a service to propagate information and findings. Since 2005, the platform has offered video embedding and enlarged cloud storage services after securing significant confederal funding from a national technology exhibition. According to one study from Equitable Science Advancement Lab, thirty-eight percent of the Thai population receives news from the digital landscape such as SahaiLink, compared to the other sixty-two percent that access information from radio, newspaper, and television.
Moreover, SahaiLink has developed robust anti-surveillance protocols per the People’s Data Privacy Act (PDPA 2004). Its dynamic fact-checking community regularly flagged state-controlled and party-controlled media such as NBT and the Communist Daily, respectively, for propagating biased, partisan information. They rely on public broadcaster Thai PBS, independent publications such as The Nation, and various public institutions or cooperative organizations to provide corrected information. Despite Thailand’s socialist culture, SahaiLink has demonstrated remarkable tolerance toward diverse perspectives coming from non-Marxist communist, anarchist, and techno-utopian circles.
Last edited:
