Fulcrum: The Russia-Ukraine War: Unpacking Online Pro-Russia Narratives in Vietnam. “Pro-Russia narratives in Vietnam’s cyberspace are the result of cross-pollination between sentimental attachment since the Soviet era, psychological bias towards Russia embedded in Vietnam’s education and propaganda system, and the overriding imperative to preserve the Vietnamese state’s political and ideological interests.”
Radio Free Asia: Vietnam ‘opinion workers’ push Russian fake news on Ukraine on social media. “Facebook groups like ‘Đơn vị Tác chiến Mạng’ (Cyber CombatUnit), ‘Truy quét Phản động’ (Elimination of Reactionary Forces), ‘Bộ Tự lệnh Tác chiến’ (Combat Command), and ‘Trung đoàn 47’ (Regiment 47) that have worked to counter criticism of the Communist Party all now post information in favor of Russia.”
Yusof Ishak Institute: 2022/44 “The Russia-Ukraine War: Unpacking Online Pro-Russia Narratives in Vietnam” by Hoang Thi Ha and Dien Nguyen An Luong. “The Russia-Ukraine war’s ramifications for Vietnam are felt beyond the economic and diplomatic realms. It has in fact become an online hotbed of conflicting and confounding narratives that demonstrate different worldviews and political leanings among Vietnamese netizens. An examination of 28 Facebook pages/groups active in trending pro-Russia narratives finds an ‘echo chamber’ that is on a constant lookout for Russian, Western and even Chinese news sources that peddle and amplify pro-Russia and anti-Western voices.”
Reuters: Exclusive-Vietnam plans 24-hour take-down law for “illegal” social media content -sources. “Vietnam is preparing new rules requiring social media firms to take down content it deems illegal within 24 hours, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The planned amendments to current law will cement Vietnam, a $1 billion market for Facebook, as one of the world’s most stringent regimes for social media firms and will strengthen the ruling Communist Party’s hand as it cracks down on ‘anti-state’ activity.”
New-to-me, from Center for Research Libraries: Global Press Archive CRL Alliance adds Southeast Asian Newspapers as digital open access collection. “The Center for Research Libraries and East View Information Services have launched Southeast Asian Newspapers(link is external), the fifth open access collection of titles digitized under the Global Press Archive CRL Alliance…. The Southeast Asian Newspapers collection encompasses over 265,000 digitized pages from 65 publications, including: Gia định báo (the first Vietnamese newspaper, published in Saigon from 1865–1910), Nagara vatta (the first Cambodian-language newspaper), and Bramartani (a weekly newspaper from Surakarka, Indonesia), among others.”
The Mainichi: COVID isolating foreign residents in Japan, some contemplating suicide. “A fair number of foreign nationals in Japan have been growing emotionally unstable amid the coronavirus pandemic, and some 20% of respondents to a survey targeting Vietnamese residents answered that they had thought of taking their own lives. An expert believes that behind this reality is the tendency for foreigners to become isolated in Japan, as they are away from their home country and do not have family or other loved ones near them.”
The Japan News: Vietnam: Big data firm launches nation’s biggest gene database . “The genomes of over 1,000 people have been analyzed to form a gene database that will serve medical research and practices for the first time in Vietnam. The project by VinBigData sets out to help with the diagnosis and treatment of genetic diseases, and provide data for the application of precision medicine in the country. It also aims to establish a gene database for the Vietnamese, according to Dr. Vu Van Ha, VinBigData scientific director.”
North Carolina State University: The Future of History: How New Tools Tap Into Diverse Perspectives on the Past. “Bodies and Structures 2.0, which I [David Ambaras] co-direct with Kate McDonald, is a way to do multivocal spatial histories of modern East Asia and the worlds of which it has been a part. It consists of 17 individually authored modules, which examine a diverse range of topics, such as histories of disease and vaccination; narcotics trafficking; colonialism; migration; and urban life. These modules feature cutting-edge research on Japan (including Okinawa), Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Mongolia. On top of this, the site uses tags, annotations, links, and visualizations to connect and cut across the modules, giving contributors and users the opportunity to think comparatively about space, place and power.”
Khmer Times: Human traffickers use social media to lure job seekers to Cambodia. “Human traffickers in Việt Nam are finding ever more inventive ways to lure potential victims overseas for exploitation. Through social media networks like Facebook or Zalo, they are offering well-paid jobs at casinos or online games in Cambodia, before springing their trap.”
The Thaiger: Activists in Vietnam land dispute jailed for criticising government on social media. “Two Vietnamese activists have been jailed for social media content about a violent clash with the authorities that resulted in the deaths of 4 people. According to an AFP report, violence broke out as activist villagers were protesting plans to build a military airport on their land.”
Vietnam+: Vietnam steps up digitalisation of cultural heritage. “The programme aims to build a national database system on cultural heritage on a consistent digital platform, which serves the archive, management, research, conservation and introduction of heritage, thereby fostering sustainable tourism development. It is also to step up digital transformation and integration of national digital data on cultural heritage.”
I might not have the name of this media outlet right. If I goofed it, apologies. Ap Bac Newspaper: Conference seeks to unleash potential of old photo archives at Vietnamese institute. “The Institute of Social Sciences Information (ISSI) under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) on November 25 held an international scientific conference to seek ways to unlock potential of the photo archives of the French School of the Far East (EFEO) at ISSI. ISSI Deputy Director Assoc. Prof., Dr. Le Hai Dang said the big collection of EFEO photos archived at ISSI has become a valuable heritage for researchers in studying national culture and provided evidence for the restoration of cultural and historic relics damaged by wars or natural disasters.”
Association of Southeast Asian Nations: ASEAN launches first e-exhibition on cultural heritage digital archive portal . “‘Forging History’ brings focus to the roles of metals in transforming the ASEAN region’s history and cultures. It features 22 digitised cultural heritage treasures selected by guest curator Girard Phillip E. Bonotan with support from museums and archival institutions of the ASEAN Member States. Highlights of the e-exhibition include Buddhist manuscript cabinets from Thailand, golden crowns from Indonesia, and modern metal artworks created by Malaysian artists, among others.” You can get an overview of ASEAN and its member nations here.
Washington Post: The case against Mark Zuckerberg: Insiders say Facebook’s CEO chose growth over safety. “Late last year, Mark Zuckerberg faced a choice: Comply with demands from Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party to censor anti-government dissidents or risk getting knocked offline in one of Facebook’s most lucrative Asian markets. In America, the tech CEO is a champion of free speech, reluctant to remove even malicious and misleading content from the platform. But in Vietnam, upholding the free speech rights of people who question government leaders could have come with a significant cost in a country where the social network earns more than $1 billion in annual revenue, according to a 2018 estimate by Amnesty International.”
Vietnam+: HCM City’s museums launch online exhibitions. “Ho Chi Minh City’s museums are offering online exhibitions and virtual tours as part of their effort to develop business amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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