Thai Prime Minister’s Twitter Account Hacked

Did Thailand's new prime minister lapse into a bout of self-hatred on Twitter?

Not exactly. The Twitter account of Yingluck Shinawatra, the 44-year-old recently elected premier, was hacked.

Followers of @PouYingluck were treated to an eight-Tweet rant against the premier's own government, a strange departure from Yingluck's typical feel-good Tweets. (Even the "Pou" in her Twitter handle is a personal touch. That's her nickname, which means "crab.")

The messages, written in Thai, began with:

"This country is a business. We serve our own, not the Thai people. We do this for those who support us, not for those who see things differently."

This is a knock on the premier's so-called "family business" style of governance. Her brother Thaksin, a former prime minister, was ousted in 2006 by a military adamant that his personal greed was driving the country into the ground. A majority of voters, however, disagreed and elected the deposed premier's sister into office. Senior positions in the new government have gone to loyal allies of the family.

In the following Tweets, the hacker dropped his Tweeting-as-Yingluck schtick and started trashing the government in his own voice.

"Thailand needs change. The time has come for everyone in this country to wake up. The stupidity must end."

"Isn't it time for our country to change for the better? Not just projecting an image of benefitting our own companies, our relatives and parties of interest."

"If she can't protect her own Twitter account, how can she protect the country? I leave you with this thought, brothers and sisters."

A full account of the hacked Tweets can be found here at an Asian Correspondent post written by Thai-German blogger Saksith Saiyasombut.

UPDATE: The government, according to the Bangkok Post, has traced the Tweets to an iPhone with a pay-as-you-go account. Authorities have vowed to track down and prosecute the hacker.