Facebook Promotions Guidelines Violated by the Tourism Authority Of Thailand Once Again

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has just released another contest on Facebook and once again they have violated the Facebook Promotions Guidelines.

Tourism Authority Of Thailand Violates Facebook Promotions Guidelines

The contest is in preparation for Thai New Year, Songkran, and is actually a 3rd party application run on Facebook, so, the Tourism Authority of Thailand got that part correct.  This was announced in a teaser yesterday afternoon saying it would be ready in “the evening”.  It wasn’t.  Then TAT changed in “the evening” to “tomorrow morning”.  Fail again.  It was finally ready at 1500 today.

Tourism Authority of Thailand Songkran Champion

What they once again failed to do is post disclosures letting entrants know that Facebook is not part of this promotion.

They also just put up a link to the contest and didn’t follow the guidelines for placement:

The following requirements apply to any promotion you administer through an application on the Facebook Platform.

Here is the worst part.  In order to have any chance of winning, you MUST get your friends involved.  You MUST invite them and this gives you more “power” and a better chance of winning. The only winner here is TAT who will get more Facebook friends.

To top it off, in order to play the Songkran Champion game, you have to give the application TOTAL access to your page.  Here is what the application will be able to access:

Request for Permission
Songkran Champion is requesting permission to do the following:

* Access my basic information
Includes name, profile picture, gender, networks, user ID, list of friends, and any other information I’ve shared with everyone.
* Send me email
Songkran Champion may email me directly at my email address (not shown for obvious reasons)
* Post to my Wall
Songkran Champion may post status messages, notes, photos, and videos to my Wall
* Access posts in my News Feed
* Access my data any time
Songkran Champion may access my data when I’m not using the application
* Access my profile information
Likes, Music, TV, Movies, Books, Quotes
* Access my contact information
Online Presence
* Access my friends’ information
Likes, Music, TV, Movies, Books, Quotes and Online Presence

Songkran Champion

So, basically, I have to sign my life over (and that of all of my friends) to this application in order to play and get all of my friends to sign up to have a chance of winning.

And, the prizes are not worth winning – crap from LG, a product I will never buy.  You can read about my experience with my wife’s LG television.

To add to this, the Tourism Authority of Thailand Khon Kaen office is holding a photo contest once again and asking friends to upload photos to their wall.  Another clear violation of the Facebook Promotions Guidelines:

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.

Here is a screen shot of the Tourism Authority of Thailand Khon Kaen Office contest:

Once again, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which is an official Government Office of Thailand has violated the Facebook Promotions Guidelines.

The text was modified to remove a broken link to http://apps.facebook.com/songkranchampion/.

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

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

Tags: contest facebook guidelines khon kaen khonkaen promotions TAT tourism authority of thailand