Legal threats from the embattled celebs behind VRZO have won at least one apology from the internet.
A university student who personal spread rumors about VRZO’s Tubtim Mallika Leekpai appeared in a video alongside the female host and a lawyer representing the popular YouTube channel to apologize.
“I’d like to apologize for the status post on my personal Facebook which was shared on Pantip and other news sites and damaged the reputation of VRZO and Tubtim,” Suphitchaya Vongvithyakamhorn said in a lawyery-sounding statement Friday night. “I didn’t mean it. I did it out of innocence.”
Notably Suphitchaya didn’t say she lied about Tubtim stealing her boyfriend – only apologized – and the image of the girl flanked by Tubtim and her lawyer days after VRZO made legal threats against their critics is unlikely to help its battered image.
“I accept her apology,” Tubtim said in the recorded segment. “I have been affected in so many aspects that I don’t know how I’m gonna take everything back. Thank you for your support.”
While VRZO was a success story that demonstrated the potential for building an online empire, it’s now a cautionary tale about relying heavily on cults of personality among a fickle, online community.
Suphitchaya’s comments on Facebook about Tubtim hooking up with her boyfriend added fuel to the flamewars underway against Tubtim and her husband/co-host Pleum Leekpai, the son of a former prime minister.
Her comments came after netizens, whose loyalty built VRZO into an immensely popular and profitable YouTube channel, turned on the celeb couple after Tubtim offended her fans’ intelligence by making absurd claims on-air about a skin cream product sold by her mother.
Tubtim said she would drop any legal action against Suphitchaya.
Although their fans hailed the news as a win for VRZO, a number of other controversies remain over how it has treated its staff and diluted its programming with commercialism.
Tubtim said she will still pursue legal action against several news sites that published Suphitchaya’s story. The publications mentioned in the video include Matichon, Kapook, MThai and a few other personal social media users.
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