aroiaroi

19 minutes ago, polpott said:

It was the Thai owner.

Initially that was reported but later claimed (by AMM) the charges were brought by one of the expat managers in one of the recent tweet comments.

1 hour ago, dabhand said:

I read some of the comments to the NYT and DM articles. If you thought that there would be a huge ground swell of support for the American guy I would say you would be rather disappointed........

You have misread the tone.
Most of the comments are along the lines of "thrown in jail for a 1 star review ? whoa.... I will never take another holiday in Thailand again!"

The damage goes in this order: Thailand tourism, the hotel, then the customer.

Ironically it was an expat at the hotel that pressed charges. Could it get any dumber ?
 

The news is spreading.

https://news.yahoo.com/american-faces-two-years-prison-131402126.html?ncid=facebook_yahoomainf_js3jgx0vd5k

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-faces-prison-bad-tripadvisor-review-thailand/

Quote

"We chose to file a complaint to serve as a deterrent, as we understood he may continue to write negative reviews week after week for the foreseeable future," the hotel said.

^ Obviously a dumb idea that has backfired. 
 

I'm suprised the hotel took the bait.
Bad business decision, and bad for the tourism industry.

I very much doubt the customer gets jail time. He is probably chortling on his Chang beer as we speak as he refreshes his browser tabs every 5 minutes, watching the fallout.