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Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

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Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#181

Post by dang »

throwawaynothx wrote: post #150
AmericanChopper wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chinese tourists do have quite a reputation for creating a nuisance. But in most of Asia the tourists who have the worst reputation for most outrageous behaviour has to be the Russians and Australians. Russians and Australians going to Asian tourist destinations, getting extremely drunk and starting fights is pretty much a cliche.

say what cunt? wanna go

We've banned this account for repeatedly posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait to HN. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They are at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. The basic idea is: if you have a substantive point to make, make it thoughtfully; if you don't, please don't comment until you do.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#182

Post by dang »

unnameduser1 wrote: post #159
mdoms wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think the Japanese government would extradite someone to Thailand for low-level defamation?

He works in Thailand. What are you talking about?

You've broken the site guidelines a ton in this thread. Could you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here? We'd appreciate it.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#183

Post by justinclift »

dang wrote: post #181
throwawaynothx wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

say what cunt? wanna go

We've banned this account for repeatedly posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait to HN. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They are at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . The basic idea is: if you have a substantive point to make, make it thoughtfully; if you don't, please don't comment unti…

Hmmmm. Just to point out, that specific comment is Australian humour.

It's not good Australian humour, but it's humour. It's taking the piss out of (mocking) a "stereotypical Australian" reaction, as commonly found in pubs and other (cheaper) drinking establishments.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#184

Post by mumblerino »

eric4smith wrote: post #133

I'm actually in Koh Chang right now and this gave me a chuckle. You have no idea how entitled some "farang" (foreigners) here are and how low of an opinion many of them have of Thailand and the Thai people. Sometimes it's really sickening to see the posts of this certain bloc of expats. They expect the government to just overlook the rules when it comes to immigration, local customs and local laws. Recently because o…

Regardless of what you said about “those guys,” which is barely relevant to the story, if we are to believe the business owners, they’re right in suing for defamation (the guy left 3 reviews out of spite)

However the problem is that the police considers this a good enough reason to jail someone working there legally after picking him up from his workplace.

I don’t think that’s fair.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#185

Post by saalaa »

rsynnott wrote: post #94
cnst wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just a figure of speech. What's so gravely offensive about it?

I mean, it’s at least arguably an allegation of a crime. I wouldn’t be a fan of criminal libel still existing, but that’s a case where it might be appropriate for the hotel to take a civil libel case, assuming it’s unfounded.

Which, considering this is Thailand, probably is founded indeed.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#186

Post by narag »

082349872349872 wrote: post #172
narag wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it true in any first world countries? There are two clearly distinct legal traditions: the common law in the anglo countries and civil law in the rest. Also USA and UK seem to have very different and each of them unique treatment in this matter. So it's not a question of first world countries vs the rest. It's more of a USA vs UK vs the rest of democratic countries, not sure where other Commonwealth countries fall…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_legal_systems...

That's a great visualization! Not only it represents a lot of information, but it shows the nuances, like the huge influence of Napoleon or the Germans.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#188

Post by NiceWayToDoIT »

gruez wrote: post #29

The part near the end of the article is confusing. >While this reaction by the hotel does sound excessive I’d give them the benefit of the doubt that this guest behaved like a total idiot while at the property and then turned around with very unflattering descriptions and manufactured truths aka lies about this resort. He then refused to discuss the matter with the hotel and instead of stopping even accelerated his o…

This is double edge sword for Thailand, maybe corrupt justice system can work as a new revenue source, but it will definitely impact new tourist going there.

I had a good time there, but I remember my expectations were low. But news like this make me cross that country from the map of future traveling.

I remember feeling when at entrance in Singapore I got stamp on passport with small print warning that "drug usage is punishable by death" regardless of not using drugs, I could not help myself of overthinking "what if someone puts a small bag in my luggage" or what if I my sleeve brushed somewhere where someone was sniffing coke...

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#189

Post by baby »

samvher wrote: post #176
ornornor wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW Koh Tao was the worst place I had the displeasure to stay at in Thailand. The taxi basically dumped us in the middle of the jungle because he got pissed off he couldn’t find our hotel and threatened us with baseball bats when we didn’t want to get off. I thought they were leaving us there for their accomplices to mug us. We reported it to a police station that we found on our long walk back where all the cops we…

Interesting - I also traveled around Thailand and had basically only good experiences in Koh Tao (the diving there is gorgeous), but a number of bad experiences mainly around Bangkok and Chiangmai (never setting foot there again! :) ). Specific events definitely color our impressions of places!

What happened? I’m convinced my girlfriend almost got abducted at the airport by w fake cab.

Re: Hotel guest in Thailand jailed for defamation after posting bad online reviews

#190

Post by ashtonkem »

kinghtown wrote: post #173
ashtonkem wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a good reason to never go there as a tourist, actually. And no, that is clearly not what they’re trying to communicate (although the actual goal remains unclear). If the premise was “don’t write a review, they’re corrupt and will spuriously jail you”, then they wouldn’t offer the hotel chain the benefit of the doubt.

One of the most visited countries in the world. We are all well aware of the reputation they have for sex tourism so anyone going there really needs to embrace the idea that Thailand isn’t quite the same as a typical western country. I have no great interest in going (I live in Taiwan and the average review I hear for a family vacation isn’t very flattering) but if I were I would be really careful. Most people woeful…

I get that some people are entitled idiots who seem completely incapable of thinking through the consequences of their actions, but I’ve never heard Thailand described in a way that sounds terribly interesting to me as a vacation spot.

Then again, I typically describe any place with more than a few dozen people as overly crowded for the purposes of vacationing, so maybe I’m not the right person to ask.

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