User:CaKhKl/sandbox/Online Activism in Vietnam

Online Activism in Vietnam

Online Activism in Vietnam and the electronic technologies communication for various forms of activism is a rather new phenomena in Vietnam that started shortly after the arrival of Yahoo 360° in Vietnam. With the number of the Vietnamese population with Internet access increasing from 30.7% in 2010 to 52% in 2016 (50million Internet users in 2016).

The goals for online activists and their blogs can be resumed in the three following points:

Blogs and Facebook in Vietnam promote “grassroots reporting of untouched issues”. They provide different point of views than those offered by state-run media channels. They gather several groups of individuals around critical discussions on political affairs, may they be national or international.

Development - Rise

Online Activism in Vietnam is said to have started in 2006 with the arrival of Yahoo 360°. The platform was providing personal space where young Vietnamese could freely express their views and opinions, make new friends, exchange ideas for study or work purposes, or even advertise on products. By 2007, the social network counted around 3 million blogs in Vietnam only. In the beginning blogs were used to communicate on anodyne subjects and few politically oriented blogs existed. The online activism movement accelerated when some bloggers noticed that the Vietnamese government wanted to better control the cyberspace by enacting laws, setting up firewalls, sending malware and arresting political cyberactivists. In 2009, Yahoo! 360° closed which turned down the large majority of Vietnamese blogs. Bloggers were then scattered through several platforms such as Wordpress, Blogspot, Multiply, My Opera and Yahoo 360° Plus Vietnam (created on April 2009 for the Vietnamese market). By the end of 2009 the frequency of blog readers dropped from 46 to 40% and the number of writers from 27 to 20%.

The interruption of Yahoo 360° is said to be due to overwhelming competition from other famous social network such as Facebook.

The role of Facebook

From 1.4 million users in February 2011, to more than 31 million of users in March 2015 the expansion of Facebook in Vietnam was prompt. In terms of number connected people, Vietnam represents one of Facebook’s most consequent markets in the world. Vietnamese online activists link their blogs account to their Facebook accounts and publish their work on the social network. Facebook presents a wider range of point of views to the Vietnamese than do the mainstream media. Additionally, an information would be published faster on social network than it will be covered by mainstream media. Mainstream media usually need the approval of the government or the Party in order to write on a specific subject. As a consequence with the rise of social networks, blogs integrated themselves in the media landscape, to the point of supplanting the mainstream medias among the younger population.

The following case shows how Facebook is a mean for online activists to organize rallies, communicate and propagate their ideas, criticize government actions, and challenge the Communist Party of Vietnam’s hegemony over the people.

The Trees Movement

The Trees Movement refers to upheavals that happened in Hanoi in 2014 in reaction to the city’s council decision to cut down more than 6700 trees throughout the capital. The movement reached Hanoians of all age and socio-economic background.

The goal of the project was to rejuvenate Hanoi’s landscape by cutting down old and dying trees to replace them by new ones. Hanoians noticed that the trees that were being chopped down were still healthy. The inhabitants started to raise questions and concerns upon the “real objective” of the campaign. Facing the silence of the city’s officials some citizens started to take on the social media; at a time Facebook users were publishing one image of chopped trees every minute. As unrest arose a Hanoian housewife created the Facebook page “6700 people for 6700 trees” in order to gather 6700 “likes” to pay tribute to the falling trees. Two weeks after its creation, the page collected more than 60000 ”likes”. In the following months three Facebook pages emerged:

- The private Group 6700 People. The group members were using the social network to start discussions, gain wider support and organize collective actions. They organized green marches, Tree Hugs Picnics, information gathering. In order to gain the officials’ attention, they used legal means such as open letters, appeal to the Constitution and other legal documents, call for audiences and the redaction of online petitions.

- The public Group 6700 Trees. The page was created by two architects. Their aim was to gather images and videos of the falling trees in order to put them together into an hour long documentary called “City for People”, or “Do Thi Vi Nhan Sinh”. They ended up organizing a Green Walk that gathered around 900 participants. After the demonstration the administrators of the group were put under surveillance and were harassed by security forces; two of them were summoned to the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Security, while some of the other group founders received visits from security officers at their personal addresses. All of them were asked to cease activity and communicate the termination of their movement on March 2015.

- From the dissolution of the latter group, Group for a Green Hanoi was created. Their main objective was to take the “combat” on the streets of the capital. Via closed discussions on Facebook, they organized several marches, bike ridings, and demonstrations. After a month of protestation on April 26, during a protestation, the police suppressed numerous protesters and arrested 22 of them; later they were accused of public disorder.

Following the social unrest nurtured by those Facebook groups the city’s committee decided to put the project on hold until further notice.

The Online Petition Movement

Online petitions are relatively new means of spreading awareness on particular topic or event and challenge the government’s narrative. They are more used in a symbolic manner and their aim is not to force officials to re-establish new laws. The first online petition to appear to the wider public was written in 2009 an was engaged against a governmental plan to extract bauxite, one of the leading signature was the academic Nguyễn Huệ Chi. Online petitions are short texts of maximum three pages published on Internet for a wider public to read, comment and if wanted, sign. They usually address ‘hot’ topics of Vietnamese politics and public affairs and they call for the nation’s leaders, organizations or even individuals to act on a particular issue.

Online petitions can also be used to spread democratic ideals, defend historical causes dear to Vietnamese, such as land rights, CPV leadership, or foreign “Chinese domination”. Online petitions echo with cultural and historical practice in Vietnamese folklore where anyone could attract nation leaders’ (or in the past the Emperors) attention on an issue that needs improvements. As long as the dissent will not directly denounces the leaders his or her call can be heard.

Proportionately to the Vietnamese population, very few people sign the petitions, but people that sign them are coming from various parts of Vietnam; one can often find farmers, workers, state officials, militaries signing along with scholars, artists, journalists, religious figures, or dissidents and NGO workers, etc.

The chart below identifies some of the most followed petitions since 2009 until 2014.

Online Petitions from 2009 to 2014

Title of the petition	Year	Date	Initial Number of Participants	Total Number of Participants (as of 2015)	Lead Signatures
Petition on the Master Plan and projects for bauxite 2009 mining in Vietnam	2009	April	135	2,746	Nguyễn Huệ Chi
Petition on bauxite mining in the Central Highlands, in light of the red mud spill disaster at the Ajka Timfoldgyar factory, Hungary	2010	October	12	2,765	Hoàng Tụy
Petition to Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify its relations with China	2011	July	18	Not availble anymore	Nguyễn Trọng Vĩnh
Petition of the citizens [on case of Đoàn Văn Vươn]	2012	February	none	1,361	Lê Hiền Đức
Declaration on the forceful expropriation of land in Văn Giang [in Hưng Yên Province]	2012	1 May (International Labour Day)	none	3,350	Nguyễn Huệ Chi
Appeal to enforce human rights in accordance with the National Constitution of Vietnam	2012	25 December (Christmas Day)	82	347	Hoàng Tụy
Petition for revising the National Constitution of 1992 [Petition of 72]	2013	January	72	approx. 15,000	Nguyễn Quang A
Letter to demand pursuit of legal action against China in international court	2014	May	none	3,711	Nguyễn Quang A; Lê Trung Tĩnh
Demand for release of writer Nguyễn Quang Lập, also known as blogger Quê Choa	2014	10 December (International Human Rights Day)	35	1,548 (as of January 2015)	Nguyên Ngọc

Types of online activists

Seven profils

It is possible to identify seven profiles of online influencers writing on different subjects by profiling seven real bloggers. There are those who write within the lines delimited by the Communist Part of Vietnam and those who try to break those fences and write on controversial subject and/or in a controversial ways.

“Mr. Controversial” – this individual does not like publicity; he stays in the shadow. Even though he started later than other influential bloggers his platform grew quickly, his blog was one of Vietnam’s most visited, scoring around 1 million views a day. He does not write his posts; he mostly publishes national degrees and laws, complaints about controversial events (ex: bauxite mining plans), or tutorials to access Facebook when the government decides to block the access. Subjects he deals with range from politics to laws, economy, and culture.

“Mr. Showbiz” – contrary to the previous profile, Mr. Showbiz is well known; he has been blogging since the very beginning of the blogging phenomenon in Vietnam. He started in 2006 by publishing critics on albums, movies, and writing media reviews. His knowledge over those subjects gave him credibility and he is now hosting shows where he invites celebrities for the national television. His blog can attract up to 4 million viewers a day. Today he still writes opinion pieces on albums and movies.

“Ms. Pink“ – she is known for her amusing, witty pieces of narration. She became famous by sharing bits of her day-to-day life. She used to be a freelance journalist before opening her own blog. Most of her work is based on thoughts flowing from personal experiences. She writes on the entertainment business, food and restaurant industry, fashion, cosmetic and musical events she is welcomed.

“Ms. Feminist” – she is one of the top influential bloggers in Vietnam. She was a famous writer and author before opening her blog. She deals with important subjects in women’s life and likes to write on sensual (sometimes dubious but helpful) subjects. Ms. Feminist conveys her ideas through short stories.

“Mr. Vietmerican” – as his nickname suggests it, he is a Vietnamese-American. He used to do stand-up comedy and started his blog in order to improve his jokes and present them to the wider public. His blog deals with various daily life subjects with a humoristic and sometimes caustic tone. His aim is not to provoke the government, only to raise some issues with humour.

“Mr. Expat” – after years of journalism, Mr. Expat decids to move in Vietnam in order to help street kid associations. He is now working as communication and marketing chief for an international organisation. For him Hanoi became a second home where he can express his desire to help the worst off.

“Mr. Column” – his is another non-Vietnamese. He started as most of the others in 2006 with Yahoo 360°. When the platform closed he migrated to Wordpress. He is writing in Vietnamese on social issues he witnesses, from a foreigner point of view, along with some arts and media critics, and parodies of controversial subjects. Between 2006 and 2008 he attracted around 10 millions visitors. Nowadays he is writing for a mainstream media that, according to him, does not seem to affect his editorial line.

Three ways

The Vietnamese political blogging universe does not fit into the linear view showcasing a legion of online political activists against the government or the Party. It is possible to further breakdown the online political activists block into three distinct groups.

The first group refers to the “Activist Bloggers”. Those blogs are created and managed by a single person or groups of “netizens”, musicians, tech-savvies, journalists, lawyers and/or academics. They are usually well known among the online community. Most of them are living in Vietnam whereas others are stationed abroad (either by choice or forced to). The topics usually approached are of public concern that are either eluded or only succinctly voiced in mainstream media, such as Sino-Vietnamese relations. Their goal is to “fill the void left by the state-run media.” In this group we can find bloggers and blogs like: Huỳnh Ngọc Chênh; Quê Choa / My Homeland ; The Network of Vietnamese Bloggers; Bauxite Vietnam.

The second group refers to the “Pro-CPV Bloggers”. They are bloggers that support CPV leaders and their policies. They present themselves as academics, writers, soldiers, former officials or journalists working for state-run institutions. They counter comments by individuals or organizations campaigning for more democratization or denouncing CPV leaders. They use mockery and diminishing nicknames like “the Reactionary” or the “Betrayer” to dismiss activists. Some of them hold blogs to point out the negative sides of democracy. They are thought to be working for the CPV to promote the Party and their actions. People use the sentence Dư luận viên to talk about them. This phrase can be translated as "pro-government bloggers". An official from the Propaganda and Education Department admitted that the government employed around 900 polemists “to monitor and direct online discussions on everything from foreign policy to land rights”. A former communication official also declared that polemists’ role is to protect CPV leaders from attacks of polemists from other Party senior officials. Officials have been using similar methods with newspaper journalists since the profession existed in Vietnam. In this group we can find blogs like: I am a soldier from Nguyen Bien Cuong.

The third group refers to the “Anonymous Bloggers”. Few details are known about their identity and the lifespan of their blogs varies. In spite of the anonymity, the authors of those online pages can quickly attract millions of readers and become the centre of polemics. These phenomena can be explained by the importance of the information published. Those information usually target senior CPV officials and their families. These anonymous writers are usually more active approaching national political events, such as nation scale elections. Some of those blogs attracted in 2012 more than 15 million readers in the sole time of two months. Due to the wide interest showed by Vietnamese, state-run media took on some of these polemics and started questioning the CPV leaders. In this group we can find blogs like: Quan Làm Báo (Officials Doing Journalism) or Chân Dung Quyền Lực (Portrait of Power).

Development - Repercussions

Since the development of online activism the government have not stopped to repress dissents. Cases of dissent bloggers being arrested and put in jail have been common and have intensified since the beginning of the decade. The government and the CPV are using tri-dimensional ways to silence dissent voices. First, they use bloggers to counter online activists and redirect the public opinion. Second, they arrest online activists and restore order in the streets. Finally, they censor online activists with existing laws and generate new ones that will extend their grip over dissent.

Mother Mushroom and the bauxite mines

This affair occurred in 2009, when a so-called “Mother Mushroom”, from her real name Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh started to report on land confiscation for Chinese-backed bauxite mines plans in the Central Highlands. She frequently updated the readers with new images and new accounts of discontent from the locals. Her worked sparked anti-Chinese protestations across the country. Despite warnings sent from Party officials and the government, “Mother Mushroom” continued to write until 2016 when she was arrested while visiting an imprisoned political activist. Two years ago she was sentence for ten years in prison. Recently she was released on the condition of her exile for the US.

Dead fish affair

In April 2016 Nguyễn Văn Hoá was arrested after blogging on the Formosa environmental disaster. The Taiwanese plastic steel plant was suspected to be at the origin of the spill of toxic chemical wastes. This spill greatly impacted the aqua sphere along the shores of Vietnam, south of Hanoi, generating an economic loss for the fishermen working in the region. Nguyễn Văn Hoá exposed the case by posting images of dead fishes on his social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram) and called for protestations. The images circulated on the social networks and blogs, and the traditional press relayed the information. The case reached a national coverage and protests started in Ho Chi Minh City. After supressing the demonstrations, the government arrested Nguyễn Văn Hoá and sentenced him for 7 years in prison and charged for “conducting propaganda against the state”.

Facebook blocked with arrival of Obama

In May 2016, the platform was shut down during a three-day visit of the then United States President, Barack Obama. The platform was shut down in order to prevent further social upheavals and streets protests that were being organized through private discussions and groups on the social network.The American President was in Vietnam to promote human rights. He also denounced the “restrictions on political freedoms” exerted by the CPV. This time people were demonstrating to show their support to the fishermen impacted by the toxic chemicals spills. Facebook is frequently asked to temporarily shut down its services in order to diffuse tense situations.

Strengthening the grip

Main article: Internet censorship in Vietnam

Internet censorship is a central subject in Vietnamese politics and many legal means are used to silence dissent voices. According to the Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP, all companies operating on the Vietnamese territory may only reveal personal information of service users “at the request of competent state management agencies as prescribed by the law”. In July 2018, the government redacted a cybersecurity law requiring every Internet service provider to implement a branch of his or her company in Vietnam. This law will take effect in January 1, 2019.

"Rice-Root Activism"

Wells-Dang coins the term “rice-root activism” as an militancy where protesters will openly denounce officials wrongdoings, while staying between the lines of the Party. The redevelopment plan of the Reunification Park in Hanoi is an example of this so-called “rice-root activism”. In 2007, the Hanoi’s city Committee gave its agreement to private companies to destroy the Reunification Park and transform the area into an entertainment resort. Attached to the history of the park, Hanoians increasingly shared their resentment concerning the project to the point where they gathered and protested against its demolition.

Professionals and “ordinary people” organized themselves with the use of Internet and proceeded as following: they first tried to reach the local authorities before addressing their claim to the central government. In order to strengthen their plea, Hanoians contacted foreign and local journalists, online activists, and lawyers. They engaged with the investors, and eventually made use of their connections with people working within the Party. Finally, Hanoians engaged in a respectful discussion with the central government where the officials conceded to put the project indefinetly on hold.

In opposition to Wells-Dang, Philip Taylor uses the example of the Khmer community in Kot Ampeul, in the South of Vietnam. Inhabitants of this village in the South of Vietnam were, in 2007, in a land dispute as the local authorities seized their lands. Conversations with the local authorities being unfruitful, they decided to write a petition directed to the national government. Even though the central authorities gave them the right to claim back their land, the local officials did not act upon the decision and gave back only parts of the lands and eventually cracked down on the farmers that further expressed their discontent.

With regards to this example Taylor emphasize on the fact that the “coercive” means employed by local authorities in some cases of land disputes “should caution against taking the recent proliferation of such disputes as a sure sign that political space in Vietnam is expanding or that Vietnam is becoming a “rice-roots democracy” in practice”.

See also

• Censorship in Vietnam
• Grassroots activism
• Internet activism