As all manner of personal attacks and random allegations heaped on top of the usual slut-shaming and rumors of boyfriend-stealing and cheating rivet the Thai social-network realm, the young famous couple at the tempest’s center have had enough.
In a 30-minute video released early this morning, idol-couple Tubtim Mallika and her son-of-a-former PM husband Pleum Leekpai said they will basically sue the internet in response to what they believe is an organized conspiracy to damage their reputation.
“Our team researched why there is such rage, something we haven’t seen before,” Pleum said. “We found out there’s a team, a group of people who are trying to overthrow us and damage our reputation. This group of people intend to spark fire and slander us. Their effort is pretty successful.”
In part a warning to stem the tide of hypercritical commentary that has engulfed the celeb couple famous for the VRZO YouTube channel, the video included the appearance of a lawyer they said was representing them.
“Our legal team is gathering all the information on different websites to prosecute and sue those people for slander, and we will demand compensation,” he said.
The video’s release seemed to have no effect on the flow of comments lighting up the likes of the popular Pantip forum.
The massive internet shitstorm seems a cautionary tale of the-bigger-they-are-the-harder-they-fall, with many online commentators gleefully taking down the couple, two of the largest YouTube celebrities in the kingdom.
VRZO’s comedy Youtube channel targets teens, and hosts Tubtim and Pleum had been put on a pedestal by impressionable youngsters — the cool couple who succeeded and settled down young.
The issue erupted when netizens took offense to how Tubtim used her celebrity status to promote her mother’s skin cream line with ridiculous claims it could treat strokes and bow legs.
Fans also are lashing out against the channel’s transition to featuring mostly “sponsored content promoting brands instead of original programming.
And the internet feels betrayed as it digs deeper into their past. While most allegations include slut-shaming Tubtim and accusing her of stealing other girls’ boyfriends in the past, the allegations are widely believed and passed around for the fun of the social network without any substantiation.
VRZO, the most popular Thai Youtube channel, has been dragged down the rabbit hole in the process as people started hashtag #RIPVRZO and questions emerged over the departure of beloved VRZO personalities such as photographer Champ.
Champ fueled the internet rage with a Facebook message Tuesday targeting Pleum for using him to work until his body became “beyond damage” and neglected him, a wake-up call to the internet that maybe the VRZO family is not as happy behind the scene as they are on cameras.
Plus that with the large portion of sponsored contents and advertisements put in their recent videos, viewers are turned off and left to question: “Has VRZO lost it?”
The popular YouTube channel was one of the first in Thailand to produce long shows online that proved it was a viable business model in the eyes of the public.
In this case as VRZO, who based their success on YouTube views and comments, it may be a matter of business to engage the battle instead of weathering the storm.
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