Analysis of the Thailand-Cambodia Conflict Situation: Concern Over ‘Hatred’ Fueled by ‘Fake News’
Article (Thailand–Cambodia)September 18, 2025
By: Zhang Taehun
It has been over 1 month since the tense situation between Thailand and Cambodia began. Starting from early morning, when the Cambodians launched an attack that resulted in Thai civilians being injured and killed, leading to retaliation from the Thai. This escalated into5 days of continuous fighting from July 24-28, 2025, followed by a ceasefire that took effect onJuly 29, 2025. Since then, meetings of the General Border Committee (GBC) and the Regional Border Committee (RBC) have been held.
However, beyond the official battlefields of themilitary and governments of both countries,”online spaces” have become a “battlefield of information” with the spread of both real news, fake news, and disinformation from both sides. This could involve information operations (IO), individual emotional responses, and even revenue motives from social media platforms, leading to concerning side effects such as “creating hatred” at the public level, as shown in the following fact-checking examples by Cofact:
Demolition of Cambodian houses encroaching on Thai territory: On August 20, 2025, theFacebook page “ข่าวด่วน ทันทุกเหตุการณ์” (Breaking News – Every Event Update) posted a clip of a backhoe demolishing a house, captioned: “Commander orders raid to demolish Khmer houses, orders demolition of 80households. What do the public think?” The clipgarnered over 1.2 million views and was shared more than 1,300 times. Many other social media users also shared this clip with similar captions.
During this period, there were news reports of Thai forces seizing the Ban Nong Chan area, which the Royal Thai Army affirmed was Thai territory but had allowed Cambodians who fled civil war to live there since 2520. Later, it was found that the Cambodian side violated agreements both in the contested area and outside the contested area on the Thai side, by supporting its people to establish permanent residences. This sparked calls from Thai people to quickly expel Cambodians from the area.
However, using Google Lens image search revealed that this clip had been widely shared with Indonesian captions since the previous week (referencing KARO News on the 16th, which was Saturday, while the 20th when the clip was shared was Wednesday). One such clip was a 4.24-minute clip published by the Facebook page “KARO News” on August 16, 2025, with Indonesian captions. When translated to Thai, it described Indonesian authorities from multiple agencies jointlydemolishing an entertainment venue called Diskotik Marcopolo and a 30-room hotel in North Sumatra province.
Investigation revealed that the venue was a meeting place and a drug trafficking location. During the demolition, a group protested, including the venue owner who claimed the building (in the same area as the entertainment venue) was inherited from his ancestors. Additionally, the Indonesian local newspaper website “Bangka Pos” reported that joint authorities demolished the Diskotek Marcopoloentertainment building on August 14, 2025, because the police found drug trafficking at the location.
A clip of Thai officials delivering medicine to Khmer patients: On August 22-23, 2025, TikTok users shared a clip of Thai officials from various agencies preparing to deliver items to Cambodian officials at the front of the Chong Sa-ngam permanent border crossing sign in Sri Sa Ket Province. The clip had English captions translated to Thai as “A Thai private hospital sends medicine to Cambodian patients who cannot come to collect medicine themselves.” The narration in the clip expressed discontentthat Thai officials were using Thai taxpayers’ money to help Cambodians. This clip was reshared with added text like “Thai people’s money buying medicine for Khmer” and “Look at what Thai civil servants are doing.”
However, upon verification, this clip showed an event that occurred two months earlier(referencing news from the Ad Hoc Centre for Thailand-Cambodia Border Situation posted June 28, 2025: https://web.facebook.com/AdHocCentreforThailandCambodiaBorderSituation/posts/pfbid02XaKcTspEVEzT4mMUbMx9T2Wj1dmhLFBjHUzpLEgrYBJitxBQ4qkTrEgCPLX6RPsCl). This was when Thai and Cambodian authorities started adjusting border checkpoint opening-closing times, preventing Cambodians receiving medical treatment in Thailand from traveling to see doctors as scheduled and picking up theircontinuous medication. The Facebook page of the Ad Hoc Centre for Thailand-Cambodia Border Situation posted images of this event on June 28, 2025, describing that military and public health officials “delivered medicine to 33Cambodian patients, with Cambodian disease control checkpoint officials receiving the delivery at Chong Sa-ngam permanent border crossing, Phu Singh District, Sri Sa Ket Province.”
Additionally, when inquiring with Dr. Thawatchai Thongprasert, Deputy Medical Director of Sanpasitthiprasong Hospital, as the medicine bags bore the name “SPS PremiumSanpasitthiprasong Hospital”, he clarified that when Thai authorities started adjusting the border crossing hours, the hospital did send medicine to Cambodian patients who could nottravel to collect medicine. These patients were premium clinic patients who paid for all treatment and medicine costs themselves. This medicine delivery occurred several weeks before the clash on July 24, 2025.
Image 3: A clip of Khmer people making river prawn curry to show off to Thais, which was an old clip from a children’s shelter in Cambodia
A clip of Khmer people making river prawn curry to show off to Thais: On August 25, 2025, Facebook and TikTok users in Thailand shared a clip of a group cooking by pouring prawns into a large pan before serving in bowls, with captions stating “Khmer people making prawn curry luxuriously showing off to Thai people.” This clip was shared after Thai social media users and some Thai media outlets shared images of kitchens in Cambodian refugee centers for those fleeing fighting between Thai-Cambodian soldiers, describing that food provided by Cambodian authorities to war refugees contained only vegetables without meat, which many Thai social media users spread mockingly.
However, verification found this clip was published during June 9-10, 2025. On June 9,2025, it was posted by the Facebook page “Ton ChanSeyma,” which belongs to a Cambodian female singer with over 3.3 million followers. On June 10, 2025, it was posted by TSM Vlog and Ton ChanSeyma តន់. The clip images and captions indicated it was a cooking activity to feed children at a children’s shelter called Ptea Clara in Kandal Province, Cambodia, supported by funding from a French non-profit organization.
Furthermore, a query to the field coordinator of Ptea Clara confirmed that the clip was a meal event at Ptea Clara children’s shelter on June 8, 2025. Therefore, in summary, the “prawn curry show-off” clip that Thai social media users spread, claiming it was cooking to show off to Thai people about having good meat, had no connection whatsoever to the Thailand-Cambodia conflict situation or Cambodian refugee centers for those fleeing border fighting.
A clip of Cambodians asking Thailand for help due to flooding: On August 29, 2025, Facebook account “Nattida Sopimpa” posted a flood clip with Thai caption “Severe flooding in Khmer,asking Thai authorities for help” and Khmer caption translated by Google Translate as “Completely flooded, asking angels for protection,” with Thai flag, Cambodian flag, praying hands, and handshake emojis. This clip was shared over 800 times (as of September 1, 2025) with over 1,100 comments, many expressing hatred and unwillingness to send disaster relief.
Earlier, on July 31, 2025, the Facebook account “Virak Hin” posted a clip, embedding messagesand Khmer captions in a manner that also incited hatred against Thai people. However, verification using Google Lens found this clip was previously posted on July 26, 2025, by the Facebook account “Phanpaka Noo” with information that showed the Yom River overflowing its embankment and flooding the area in front of Wat Khuha Sawan, Mueang District, Sukhothai Province.
When inquiring with the Facebook page “Wat Khuha Sawan – Luang Pho Hom Mueang Sukhothai District Sukhothai Province,” the temple’s official page, they confirmed that the clip indeed showed Wat Khuha Sawan during flooding on July 26, 2025, matching Thai PBS television reports that on the morning of July 26, 2025, the Yom River overflowed its banks and flooded the Wat Khuha Sawan community.
Cofact’s Conclusion
The above examples reflect that the spread of such misinformation, whether intentional or due to ignorance, not only incites and reinforces hatred between the people of both countries but also is detrimental to both governments in their search for peaceful common ground to resolve the border conflict.
