charged under this law, 2024 – 2025 saw a significant number of lèse-majesté cases involving these activists advance to higher courts419. The law, often applied together with the Computer Crime Act, also serves as a political tool to silence online critics. According to TLHR’s records, lèse-majesté cases peaked in 2021 at 146, then dropped to 72 in 2022, 44 in 2023, 21 in 2024, and nine in 2025420. TLHR reported that the 146 cases stemmed from the Prayuth Chan-o-cha administration’s 2020 policy, announced at the height of the mass protests, to intensify legal enforcement by “applying every law and regulation in force” against protesters421. More than half of the lèse-majesté cases recorded by TLHR concern the expression of opinions online422. The Constitutional Court’s 2024 ruling, which declared the Move Forward Party’s 2023 election campaign to amend the lèse-majesté law unconstitutional, sets a precedent that the law cannot be challenged at all, despite its use as a political weapon to silence dissent. Despite this, civil society has pushed to include individuals convicted under Article 112 of the Criminal Code in an Amnesty Act. On July 16, 2025, the House of Representatives convened to review five draft amnesty bills proposed by civil society representatives; members of parliament from the Move Forward Party (prior to its dissolution); and members of the Thai Teachers for People Party, the Bhumjaithai Party, and the United Thai Nation Party. Of these, only the drafts from civil society (signed by 36,723 citizens)423 and the Move Forward Party included amnesty for those convicted under the lèse-majesté law424. The Move Forward Party’s draft amnesty bill received 147 votes in favor, 319 against, and six abstentions425. The citizen-initiated bill received 149 votes in favor, 306 against, and 20 abstentions. Both proposals were rejected because they failed to secure a majority of votes426. Ibid. Ibid. 421. Ibid. 422. Ibid. 423. “Listen to the 35% of Those Who Voted For: Do You Know? The Amnesty Bill (People’s Version) Can Still Move Forward if MPs Push for It.” The Momentum,13 June 2024, themomentum.co/featureamnesty-for-people. 424. Treesuwan, Hataikarn. “Who Is Backing—or Opposing—the Two Draft Amnesty Bills (the People Party’s Version and the People’s Version) After the Parliament Accepted Three and Rejected Two Drafts.” BBC News Thai, 16 July 2025, www.bbc.com/thai/articles/cjrlg8gnww7o. 425. Ibid. 426. Ibid. 419. 420. 86