![]() ![]() On the other side of the spectrum, enticed by the lure of the Vietnamese market, major digital content platforms have exhibited a growing inclination to accommodate the Vietnamese government’s censorship demands, citing the need to adhere to local laws in the countries where they operate. (Facebook boasts nearly 70 million users in Vietnam while YouTube has 63 million users and TikTok around 50 million). Dangling access to a lucrative market of nearly 100 million people, Vietnamese authorities have become increasingly adept at exploiting their economic leverage to strong-arm big tech companies into erasing content flagged as anti-state. In Hanoi’s perspective, anti-state content is what potentially can undermine national prestige, besmirch the reputation of the ruling Communist party, and slander and defame Vietnamese leaders. Over the past 25 years, the curbing of anti-state content has shaped the way Vietnamese authorities deployed various online censorship strategies, while also dictating how a raft of laws and regulations on Internet controls were formulated and enforced. PROTECT NATIONAL PRESTIGE ON THE DIGITAL FRONT It explores how the Vietnamese government leverages popular public sentiments to justify its censorship of these Netflix shows, with the ultimate aim of safeguarding the regime’s image in the digital space. Using discourse analysis, this paper examines how much that rationale genuinely reflects the sentiments of the public at large. Vietnamese authorities have consistently defended their censorship decisions by stating that the content in these programmes provoked public outrage. In June 2021, Vietnam demanded the removal of the Australian spy drama Pine Gap for featuring a map depicting Beijing’s unilaterally declared “nine-dash line” that represents its expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea. In October 2022, Little Women, a K-drama about three sisters living in modern-day South Korea, was pulled from Netflix after the authorities claimed it distorted Vietnam War history. Vietnamese authorities pilloried the three-episode show, stating that it contained “inaccurate and unsubstantiated” information regarding Vietnam’s search-and-rescue efforts for flight MH370, the Malaysia Airlines plane that vanished in 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard. In April 2023, Netflix removed the first episode of the docuseries MH370: The Plane That Disappeared from its service in Vietnam. ![]() This development highlights the heightened censorship the American streaming giant has faced in Vietnam. ![]() Netflix has recently been forced to remove these shows altogether from its programme lineup in Vietnam in response to the authorities flagging them for having content deemed unacceptable. A journalist with significant experience as managing editor at Vietnam’s top newsrooms, his work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, South China Morning Post, and other publications.Ī British docuseries, a South Korean television drama, and an Australian spy drama. * Dien Nguyen An Luong is Visiting Fellow of the Media, Technology and Society Programme at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. These moves could end up casting the Vietnamese government in a bad light, revealing its hypersensitivity, insecurity and double standards. ![]()
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