Tourism Authority Of Thailand Violates Facebook Promotions Guidelines

Once again, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Amazing Thailand Facebook Page, has violated the Facebook Promotions Guidelines.  This time by announcing the winners of a contest on Facebook with the contest hosted on an outside website.

Tourism Authority of Thailand Facebook Fail

This was two contests in one.  There was a piece where you could upload a photo to win dinner for 2 and another piece where you were supposed to upload your Blog.  This shows how computer illiterate, and Social Media Illiterate the folks at the Tourism Authority of Thailand are.  One does not upload an entire Blog – it should have read – make a blog post.  TAT’s rules even stated that the winning blog becomes the sole property of TAT.  How frigging stupid.

Here is a screen shot of the Amazing Thailand announcement of the winners:

Tourism Authority Of Thailand Facebook Announcement Of Winners

In case you cannot read the above image, here is what the post reads:

Congratulations to Surasak Srisawan, Warut Tangvatcharapranee,Norong Ngampattarawarakul, Dominic Scaife,Sven Jo and Daksha Chopra !! You are the winner from Blog and Photo Contest. “Dining Voucher” from Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok and We Love Ratchaprasong. is yours Tomorrow Sukjai will contact you via Email and don’t forget to reply me back Thank you for joining with us !!

This violates Facebook’s guidelines plain and simple.  Contests on Facebook are supposed to be run using a third party application (or hosted off-site).  TAT hosted it off-site, but announced the winners on Facebook.  This violates Facebook Promotions Guidelines.

You will not administer a promotion through Facebook, except through an application on the Facebook Platform.  Administration includes operation of any element of the promotion, such as collecting entries, conducting a drawing, judging entries, or notifying winners.

I have sent the Facebook Promotions Guideline link to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Amazing Thailand Facebook Page three times telling them to read the guidelines.  Either they can’t read, or choose to ignore.  I think it is the latter.

Additionally, the Tourism Authority of Thailand Khon Kaen Facebook Page is also hosting a contest that violates Facebook’s Guidelines.  This contest involves posting a photo of a dinosaur on the TAT Khon Kaen Facebook Wall.  Here is the official guideline from Facebook:

You will not condition entry to the promotion upon taking any other action on Facebook, for example, liking a status update or photo, commenting on a Wall, or uploading a photo.

Also

You cannot: Condition entry in the promotion upon a user providing content on Facebook, such as posting on a Wall of a Page,  uploading a photo, or posting a status update.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand Khon Kaen Office violates two items in the above.  The contest has people uploading photos to their wall, and they they have to get 30 “Likes” to have a chance to win.  More clear violations of Facebook’s Guidelines.  Here is a screen shot:

Tourism Authority Of Thailand Khon Kaen Facebook Fail

And, if you cannot read the image, here is what it says:

TAT Khonkaen

????? ?????????????????? “??????? ????? ????????????????” ??????????????????????????? ???????????????????? “?????????? ???? ??????????????????????????” ???????????? Like ??????? ???????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????? ????????????????????????? ????? 30 ?????? ???????? ? ??? ? ?????????
?????????????????…???????????? ?????????????????????????? …^o^…

TAT Khonkaen

Let’s join the dinosaur photo upload activity from now til 31st March,2011. Our prize – a TAT limited edition T-shirt is waiting for you now. Take your photo and join us !!!

I guess that the Tourism Authority of Thailand feels that since they are a Thai Government entity, they are above the law and don’t have to follow any rules.
I have no idea how closely Facebook monitors contests or if they enforce the following penalties:

In addition to our other remedies, we may remove any materials relating to the promotion or disable your Page, application or account if we determine in our sole discretion that you violate any of our policies.

Would be a real same if the Tourism Authority of Thailand had their Facebook page disabled losing over 150,000 fans.

The text was modified to remove a broken link to http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php.

Tags: facebook fail guidelines promotions TAT tourism authority of thailand violataion