Vietnamese Facebook Lures Users With Communist Videogames

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Vietnamese Facebook Lures Users With Communist Videogames



The Vietnamese government's version of Facebook is using videogames to attract citizens so that it can keep tabs on them more easily.

When you're a country that wants to control its population more adequately, Facebook isn't an ideal website for them to be on because there's just too much information to censor. The Vietnamese government knows this and is countering the likes of Facebook with its own social networking website called go.vn. After what may have been a spotty launch, the government has turned to videogames to lure the nation's youth to the site.

Go.vn, created by Vietnam Multimedia, is just like Facebook in that it allows users to post photos and message each other, except it's totally run by the government and users have to submit their full names and government-issued identity numbers to sign up. Vietnam security services are known for monitoring websites to control political dissent, and it's unlikely that go.vn is any exception. Vietnam's communist government has been known to jail opponents and tries to block the passage of unfavorable information through the web.

Go.vn launched on May 19 and is still building up to what it hopes to be with a staff of 400. Vietnamese Minister for Information and Communications Le Doan Hop calls it "trustworthy" competition that imparts "culture, values, and benefits." The government posts English tests, articles about Ho Chi Minh, and outlandish world news, but the latest attempt to get people interested is in state-approved videogames.

One game is described as a "violent multiplayer contest featuring a band of militants bent on stopping the spread of global capitalism." Vietnam Multimedia vice-director Phan Anh Tuan hopes that cheap access to videogames will bring in a "mass following." Meanwhile, Vietnamese youth either don't know that go.vn exists, or have launched campaigns to boycott the government-run website. Vietnamese citizens have been exposed to a new level of media information recently thanks to the lessening popularity of censored television and newspapers, and internet use that saw nearly 20% growth in the past year.

The Vietnamese government predicts that 40 million people will be drawn to go.vn by 2015: almost half of Vietnam's population. It's the "biggest online investment" for the Vietnamese government of all time, though specific numbers for the site haven't been released. I know it's really hard to look at a website like this in an accurate light from a foreign country where freedom is at its utmost, but I can't help thinking that it sounds really evil. It's so overtly a government-run website, from a government that is apparently known for censorship and cracking down on dissidents, that I can't imagine why anyone would even want to go near it. Its best strength, in my view, will probably be in hiding what it really is.

Source: GamePolitics [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703305004575503561540612900.html#articleTabs%3Darticle]

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Bravo 21

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May 11, 2010
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UltimatheChosen said:
Beastialman said:
I am totally going to create myself a go.vn account.
...You have an identity number issued to you by Vietnam's government?
I dont, but... free/cheap videogames, damn tempting, also, very sneeky overt plan there Mr. Le Doan Hop
 

darthricardo

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May 7, 2010
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Bravo 21 said:
UltimatheChosen said:
Beastialman said:
I am totally going to create myself a go.vn account.
...You have an identity number issued to you by Vietnam's government?
I dont, but... free/cheap videogames, damn tempting, also, very sneeky overt plan there Mr. Le Doan Hop
Because free/cheap videogames are so hard to find on the internet...
 

Badger Kyre

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Aug 25, 2010
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Hum, someone pointed out to me that there is a facebook movie that neglected to point out some of facebook's partners....

were you unaware that facebook is a data-mining site, with alleged ties to our government's defense and monitoring operations, as well?

here's the allegations...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B37wW9CGWyY

forgive me, I messed up the embed command again.
 

crimsonshrouds

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Mar 23, 2009
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*sigh* I avoid the normal facebook and other sites like it.

I don't need a profile online to tell people about myself.

I am Crimsonshrouds bitches and Matt to my friends XD
 

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Badger Kyre said:
Hum, someone pointed out to me that there is a facebook movie that neglected to point out some of facebook's partners....

were you unaware that facebook is a data-mining site, with alleged ties to our government's defense and monitoring operations, as well?

here's the allegations...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B37wW9CGWyY

forgive me, I messed up the embed command again.
Well hey, if the U.S. government is doing the same thing at least they're sneakier about it.
 

Blind Sight

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May 16, 2010
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Isn't going to work, the Soviet Union fell from a combination of a crippled economy and the fact that Western culture and products were already beginning to seep in as a result of Gorbachov's glasnost. Today, globalization has connected the world to Western markets so much that it's even harder to prevent foreign goods and ideals from coming into the country. Hell, a lot of shoes are made in Vietnam (which is why I find that game challenging Western capitalism so ironic, global capitalism apparently isn't so evil when the Vietnamese government is getting money from them to create resource export zones). A communist country cannot survive within a capitalist world market, China learned that and reformed their business policy, North Korea figured that out and went mostly autarkic, and Cuba's had to create a double-currency system for tourism that's crushing their economy. When you're connected into globalization, it's impossible to stop culture exchange. To quote Serenity, you can't stop the signal, and proof in point are those people are already trying to begin a boycott.
 

Badger Kyre

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Tom Goldman said:
Badger Kyre said:
Hum, someone pointed out to me that there is a facebook movie that neglected to point out some of facebook's partners....

were you unaware that facebook is a data-mining site, with alleged ties to our government's defense and monitoring operations, as well?

here's the allegations...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B37wW9CGWyY

forgive me, I messed up the embed command again.
Well hey, if the U.S. government is doing the same thing at least they're sneakier about it.
hearts and minds brother,
hearts and minds.

Capitalists make better salesmen...
 

Badger Kyre

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Aug 25, 2010
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ps, I know everyone has short-attention span-itis...
skip 2 minutes in and it gets scary... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B37wW9CGWyY

some of my old "hacker" buddies , who work security now, warned me about data-mining when that was a term in science fiction novels. oops.
why s only the BAD stuff ever come true from sci fi?
I want my flying car and my robot maid, not my Orwell.
 

icyneesan

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Feb 28, 2010
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Man I could just imagine the tour guide

Tour Guide: And on the left is the puppy and kitty slaughtering room.
Me: When do we get the free samples?
Tour Guide: AT THE END OF THE GOD DAMN TOUR.

Yeah... Just like every other tour guide...
 

KeyMaster45

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Jun 16, 2008
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It sounds less like an evil plot than it does a vain attempt at trying to stem the tide of enlightenment that comes with the internet. Yeah the internet has its faults and evils but ultimately it all but actively built to breach the gates of censorship some countries try to impose on their people.

Too be honest I find it funny when the more censorship heavy countries try to combat the internet because it's always doomed to failure and eventually an attack from 4chan.

Badger Kyre said:
Hum, someone pointed out to me that there is a facebook movie that neglected to point out some of facebook's partners....

were you unaware that facebook is a data-mining site, with alleged ties to our government's defense and monitoring operations, as well?
Governments collect information about their citizens; it's how they stay in power. They keep themselves informed about what keeps their people happy enough to where they don't revolt. Facebook is right now the best source of that information, and much like they allow marketing companies to collect info about people it's not much of a shock (or really news for that matter) that Facebook would have some contracts with the government to collect info as well.

Nice try on the whole dark revelation thing and "Omg we're living in 1984, didn't you know?" feel to the post. I'm sure it will scare the bejebus out of someone eventually.
 

fulano

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So...it is okay when multinational corporations like Google, Myspace, facebook, Skype, etc., spy on your activities on social websites but when a government of a nation does it it is a different, more evil kind of wrong? As far as I remember the Patriot Act(U.S) is still in place, the Iniciativa contra el Crimen Organizado (Mex) is still in place, France can ban people from wearing "ghost outfits" and is working to rescind citizenships of naturalized citicens, China is still fucking with Tibet while still being somewhat of an ally to the west--where in most countries the government can get into your personal life and tell you who you can and can't marry, etc., etc., etc.

Oh, and America's Army: the videogame is incredibly inocuous, obviously designed to give players a true taste of how action packed and bloodless military life can really be and not at all designed as a recruitment tool based on false advertising.

The way I see it, Vietnam is merely playing catch-up.
 

Necrofudge

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May 17, 2009
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I'm so happy that they're trying to connect their people over in Vietnam. I mean, yeah its a bit misguided with the whole "control of dissent through videogames" thing, but at least they're trying. I think the next step is opium dens with tape recorders covertly placed on the walls.
 

Badger Kyre

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KeyMaster45 said:
It
Nice try on the whole dark revelation thing and "Omg we're living in 1984, didn't you know?" feel to the post. I'm sure it will scare the bejebus out of someone eventually.
Most people aren't even aware of the ( now-defunct ) Information Awareness Office, just like they used to deny the existence of Echelon.

If it was genuinely not news to you that facebook has ties to the CIA (and seed money); and directors and partners that have been involved with surveillance and Dept of Defense, well, ballyhoo for you.
I don't think most people thought it through, frankly.
The idea of data-mining for sales is an old one, most people are a little more uncomfortable with their governments doing it, at least in the west.

Machiavelli might like your post ( at least when writing for the medici ), but most westerners would prefer their governments stay in power based on principles such as Social contract".
"Social contract theory formed a central pillar in the historically important notion that legitimate state authority must be derived from the consent of the governed."
magna carta john locke, declaration of independence, etc...
the basis of which assumes the police state never becomes so powerful that it needn't be aware of the needs of it's "consumers".

Anyway, be as snarky as you like, the point is, and was, that something that seemed very communist is actually snaked from us, the bastion of liberty, as it were.
 

RatRace123

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Dec 1, 2009
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Seems like an excellent way for big brother to operate, thankfully I don't live in 'nam, though even if I did, I don't think would sign up. Then again, I'm incredibly paranoid about that stuff, so my view is in question.
 

JWW

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Tom Goldman said:
Vietnamese citizens have been exposed to a new level of media information recently thanks to the lessening popularity of censored television and newspapers, and internet use that saw nearly 20% growth in the past year.
As the Internet grows, tyranny and communism dies. Yay for freedom!
 

Badger Kyre

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unabomberman said:
So...it is okay when multinational corporations like Google, Myspace, facebook, Skype, etc., spy on your activities on social websites but when a government of a nation does it it is a different, more evil kind of wrong?
Who said it was okay?
I think inherent in your point tho' is people might expect companies to data mine for sales information ( marketable demographics, etc )- but yes, it is scarier when a gov't does it.

As to the multinationals, if you think the idea of them being stronger than some nations is unique to our time period, I would remind you of the end of medieval era history - the guilds and citizens were able to field better armies than their feudal "lords", and anyone who doesn't think that impacted history probably hasn't thought it through.