When technology is steadily growing every day, people want to own a technology tool where they can share their ideas, emotions and memories with others. Based on that demand, social media was born to satisfy. After the collapsing of Blog 360 (the first social media in Vietnam) in 2009, Vietnamese people quickly transferred to a new social media house named Facebook.
In 2004, Facebook was co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends. Facebook was first launched at Harvard University and then expanded to more universities in the USA. Within one year, Facebook gained 5.5 million users. Ten years later, Facebook successful built their empire with over 1300 million users and has become the most popular and influential social media platform all over the world (Foster, 2014).
According to a Danish market research agency, “Nearly 25 million of the 36 million Internet users in Vietnam have Facebook accounts,” (Vietnamnet, para.1, 2014). Due to the popularity of Facebook, it has become “a fact of life for civil society worldwide” or become “coordinating tools for nearly all of the world’s political movements” (Shirky, 2011, p.28-41). As seen on Facebook, it has shaped Vietnam has seen as a perfect example for this issue.
Facebook has been created by capitalism ideals which people have the freedom in of speech. Therefore, Facebook users have the right to discuss their perspective on any topics even controversial political news, which could have never happened in Vietnam. Vietnamese people used to have no right to speak their mind, especially on political issues, which have been a sensitive topic to the Vietnamese public. A couple of years ago, Nah Nguyen, a Vietnamese rapper in America, openly posted on Facebook that he is against the Communist Party in Vietnam. He did not stop at posting his opinions, he also created a public page on Facebook named “I dislike the Communism Party in Vietnam” with received over 7,000 followers (Nguyen, 2015). With the support of these followers, he started a revolution in Vietnam, in order to overthrow the Communist Part and establish the Capitalism.
Taking advantage of freedom of speech and democracy on Facebook, a lot of people who have the same ideals as him are using Facebook to harm the Vietnamese government. To avoid dispute, Vietnamese government has been blocked several times since 2009. Zing Me was created to replace Facebook in Vietnam and to manage the flow of information in the media. In fact, Vietnamese government is attempting to push all citizens to use Zing Me, which means the government will be able to provide or block any information they deem necessary.
Nah Nguyen’s revolution has gone opposite to his desires, which has turned from a peaceful to a violent revolution. “It is difficult for outsiders to understand the local conditions of dissent. External support runs the risk of tainting even peaceful opposition as being directed by foreign elements.” (Shirky, p.28-41). Another blogger accused Nah Nguyen campaign “I dislike the Communist Party of Vietnam” being under the management of the US-based Viet Tan political party which is the opposing party of the Communist Party. He seems to be an innocent victim of them, they use him to speak up for them and pay the price for them.
When “the networked population is gaining greater access to information, more opportunities to engage in public speech, and an enhanced ability to undertake collective action.” (Shirky, p.28-41), a personal political status on Facebook now could turn out to a real revolution worth many the lives of the innocent. Consequently, social media is a double-edged sword, you should think carefully before posting, because you would know where those posts will lead to.
In short, due to the popular of Facebook in Vietnam, it has shaped Vietnamese political ideals in unexpected way. Therefore, the existence of Facebook in Vietnam might be counting on day.
(This is an assignment for Comm 415 class)
References:
Foster, B. (2014). How Many Users on Facebook? Retrieved from http://www.benphoster.com/facebook-user-growth-chart-2004-2010/
Nguyen, H. (2015). Vietnam’s Communism Rapped at 85. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/hung-nguyen/vietnam-communism-rapped_b_6604420.html
Shirky, C. (2011). The Political Power of Social Media. Foreign Affairs. Vol. 90 Issue 1, pp. 28-41. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/ehost/detail/detail?sid=f2e47bde-d2d3-470b-beb4-ceafdcd54e89%40sessionmgr4003&vid=0&hid=128&bdata=#db=buh&AN=56624549
Annie Hoang 