Paing Ye Thu is a member of the Peacock Generation, a satirical poetry troupe specializing in a type of slam poetry known as Thangyat. Through an accumulation of four separate charges from October 2019 to June 2020, Paing Ye Thu was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for mocking the military in a performance that was also streamed online. In a wave of pardons to mark the new year in Myanmar, Paing Ye Thu was pardoned and released on April 17, 2021.