Newton’s Socio-technical Cradle? Web Science, the Weaponisation of Social Media, Hashtag Activism and Thailand's Postcolonial Pendulum

Throughout 2020 and into 2021, set against a global pandemic, Thai emancipatory activism unfolded. This paper offers postmodernist theoretical discourse about such activism, built around the emergent discipline of Web Science. Drawing on review surveillance culture insights from Michel Foucault, Manuel Castells, Bruno Latour, Hans Kelsen David Hume, textual analysis media studies, we frame acts internalised colonisation by powerful government. We suggest these are contested ‘emergent postcolonialism’ via hashtag activism. As basis for future research, offer model socio-technical political pendulum. Across it, digitally native Thais challenge internal colonialism, through counter-power drawn Internet as postcolonial structure. In doing so, they propel or attract other actors. momentum creates an society where many still caught in middle shifting opinion, which is problematic to mediation. conclude that Science educational reform Thailand.