Actually, according to our data at the time it was mostly coming from Thai and other regional (Singapore, Cambodia, Burma, etc) IP addresses. There already existed many places to discuss world news, but not among other expats in the region. Many news stories had a different perspective for expats than it did for people back home. Pensions for instance. A minor change in the UK for instance might have an outsized effect to expats in Thailand because of exchange rates. Many people who lived in Thailand had homes and investments back home, as well as family who were affected by events there.
There's also a considerable number of people who live in Thailand, but work on contracts abroad, particularly in the petroleum industry.