Burmese-language posts viewed thousands of times on Facebook are falsely claiming that the head of Thailand's army has "declared war on Myanmar". They feature videos with the same misleading thumbnail that claims he warned the Thai army would seize Myanmar's Karen state, which borders Thailand. But the army chief shown in the videos retired in 2020, and the Thai army told AFP the claim is false.

"If the Myanmar military keeps killing civilians, Thailand will completely seize Karen state. The Thai army chief has declared war on Myanmar," reads Burmese-language text on the thumbnail of a video posted on Facebook here on February 24, 2023.

Myanmar's Karen state, which borders Thailand, has long seen heavy fighting between Myanmar's military and local rebel groups and the violence has worsened since the army seized control of the country in a 2021 coup..

The video, which has been viewed more than 20,000 times, is captioned: "Cannot stand seeing Karen people suffer from war anymore."

Its thumbnail includes photos of Apirat Kongsompong, a former Thai army chief, and Myanmar general Min Aung Hlaing, who has ruled the country since 2021.

A screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on March 13, 2023

The same misleading thumbnail was also used for videos posted elsewhere on Facebook here and here.

The false claim in the thumbnail, however, is completely different to the content of the video.

The public relations team for Thailand's army also told AFP on March 10 that...

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