https://www.scmp.com/rss/506995/feed Dien Luong is a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, and other publications. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Dien Nguyen An Luong Dien Nguyen An Luong In Vietnam, saying “I’ll call the police on you” is a familiar tease, shorthand for the authority everyone instinctively understands. Thus, it was striking when a Ho Chi Minh City police unit’s Facebook page recently reinvented itself as a meme hub. Until October, the official Facebook page run by Ho Chi Minh City’s anti-drug police looked like any other official page feed, with routine updates, arrest photos and boilerplate warnings. Then, on October 5, it abruptly shifted into playful Gen Z... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3335394/vietnams-anti-drug-police-are-speaking-gen-z-and-its-working?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3335394/vietnams-anti-drug-police-are-speaking-gen-z-and-its-working?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Dec 2025 02:30:09 +0000 Dien Nguyen An Luong Dien Nguyen An Luong Vietnam’s online playbook is shifting from deleting to diluting. After years of chasing “toxic” posts, authorities now aim to engineer “positive content” at scale – feel-good narratives designed to crowd out criticism. The country is moving to formalise a governance framework on key opinion leaders (KOLs). In June, it passed the Amended Advertising Law requiring influencers to label paid posts and verify product claims. In mid-August, it convened the first national influencer summit,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3326991/are-vietnams-attempts-putting-positive-spin-social-media-wrong-move?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3326991/are-vietnams-attempts-putting-positive-spin-social-media-wrong-move?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Sep 2025 04:00:20 +0000 Dien Nguyen An Luong Dien Nguyen An Luong In the world of social media, bears have become unlikely emblems of digital control – one erased, the other embraced. In China, Winnie the Pooh, the honey-loving cartoon icon, vanished online after memes comparing him to President Xi Jinping went viral, alarming censors who saw the satire as a threat. South of the border, Vietnam offers a different bear story. On TikTok, wildly popular with the youth, pro-leader accounts affectionately call Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh “Gau U” (“Chubby Bear”),... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3293331/chubby-bear-censorship-vietnams-approach-tiktok-reveals-double-standards?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3293331/chubby-bear-censorship-vietnams-approach-tiktok-reveals-double-standards?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Jan 2025 02:00:18 +0000 Ke Huy Quan’s Oscar win at the 95th Academy Awards on March 12 for his supporting role in Everything Everywhere All At Once set Vietnamese media abuzz. News headlines effusively highlighted this unprecedented triumph for a Vietnamese-American actor. But before long, Vietnam’s online nationalists and censorship machine seemed to also go into overdrive. A vocal pro-government Facebook page apparently ignited the firestorm by disputing any reference to Quan as a “Vietnamese-American”. The March 13... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3214763/why-vietnams-online-propagandists-are-disowning-ke-huy-quans-oscar-win?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3214763/why-vietnams-online-propagandists-are-disowning-ke-huy-quans-oscar-win?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Mar 2023 02:00:31 +0000 The cartoon shows a man about to drown at sea, crying out for help. Another person standing ashore throws a lifebuoy to the man in need, urging: “Grab the S lifebuoy.” But the drowning man shouts back: “I only need the M lifebuoy.” The would-be rescuer makes the final call by letting the crying man drift away, bidding him farewell: “Goodbye, brother!” This cartoon, posted on the Facebook page of the Chinese consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, triggered an immediate backlash online in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3146115/who-winning-us-china-battle-hearts-and-minds-vietnams-cybersphere?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3146115/who-winning-us-china-battle-hearts-and-minds-vietnams-cybersphere?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Aug 2021 06:00:15 +0000 When it comes to Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy campaign, received to much fanfare across most of Southeast Asia, Hanoi has stood out as an outlier. But the question of how long Vietnam can afford to remain immune to Chinese shots has never been more vexing for the authorities. Surging Covid-19 case numbers, dismal vaccination rates, and new waves of deadlier or more transmissible variants have made the need for shots in arms all the more dire in a country where no local infections had been... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3134085/vietnam-may-not-want-chinas-covid-19-vaccines-how-long-can-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3134085/vietnam-may-not-want-chinas-covid-19-vaccines-how-long-can-it?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 May 2021 01:00:14 +0000 Ten years ago, when Egypt and Tunisia saw dramatic uprisings after anti-government protesters galvanised support online, Vietnam’s leaders were likely to have been concerned over a possible ripple effect on the country’s social media users. Today, they face a similar worry with the #MilkTeaAlliance – a social media-fuelled pro-democracy youth movement that has in recent years gained traction in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Myanmar, and to some extent, Malaysia. A key tenet of the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3129653/why-milkteaalliance-movement-has-little-appeal-vietnamese-youth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3129653/why-milkteaalliance-movement-has-little-appeal-vietnamese-youth?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Apr 2021 00:00:07 +0000 Last week, a restaurant in Quebec, Canada, ate humble pie and promised to make changes to “vulgar and degrading puns” in its name and menu that many Vietnamese considered offensive to their culture. In November last year, an online backlash declared Hong Kong-born film star Jackie Chan persona non grata in Vietnam. The rationale? Chan was accused of having spoken in support of China’s controversial nine-dash line, a demarcation that includes large swathes of the South China Sea. Vietnam has... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3101477/how-vietnam-has-borrowed-chinas-online-censorship-playbook?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3101477/how-vietnam-has-borrowed-chinas-online-censorship-playbook?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Sep 2020 09:31:15 +0000 Determined to avert another widespread lockdown when another coronavirus wave hit Vietnam in late July, the authorities have swung into action to contain the spread of the virus. Ditto their alacrity to enlist public participation in downloading Bluezone, a contact-tracing app designed to detect Covid-19 exposure. Rolled out in mid-April, Bluezone is among dozens of contact-tracing apps built globally to notify the public of any potential exposure. Once downloaded, thanks to GPS or Bluetooth... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3098566/vietnams-coronavirus-app-bluezone-treads-grey-line-between-safety?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3098566/vietnams-coronavirus-app-bluezone-treads-grey-line-between-safety?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Aug 2020 07:02:24 +0000