An overview of the Vietnamese digital media space, focussing on YouTube.

1. SHUT IT DOWN OR SHAPE IT UP?
THE STATE OF VIETNAMESE
DIGITAL MEDIA IN 2021
DR JONATHON HUTCHINSON
DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION - UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
@DHUTCHMAN
Photo by Chris Slupski on Unsplash

3. Government and Facebook engage in discussion
Amnesty International release ‘Let Us Breathe’
report
Digital media industry (creative industries broadly)
are increasing
REGULATORY TENSION

4. DIGITAL MEDIA INVESTMENT
Australian Trade and Investment Commission highlight the sector has grown by 8% each year
between 2016 and 2020 (ATIC, 2020)
The state budget is investing US$415million into ICT sector focussing on four key sections:
improving policy environment;
developing IT human resources;
developing IT enterprise and trademarks, products and markets; and
attracting investment into building IT zones and open source software.

6. VIETNAMESE DIGITAL MEDIA, DEMOCRACY AND THE CULTURAL
INDUSTRIES
Cultural industries > cultural policy leavers
Internet users: 54.7m (2018) - 75.7m (2023)
136,230,406 mobile cellular subscriptions
68.75% of the country’s population is on the internet
A space for social and political commentary, but also strong potential for cultural production

7. VIETNAMESE DIGITAL MEDIA, DEMOCRACY AND THE CULTURAL
INDUSTRIES
Popular YouTube genres in Vietnam include, Gaming,
Music, Vlogs, Animation
6th ranked Thõ Nguyên writes, the channel ‘is an
entertainment channel for children’
This channel appears to be exempt from any throttling by
YouTube (certainly no demonetization)
Rank Platform Percentage of
users
1 Facebook 90%
2 YouTube 89%
3 Zalo 74%
4 Facebook
Messenger
74%
5 Instagram 46%
6 TikTok 39%
7 Skype 26%
8 Viber 25%
9 Pinterest 23%
10 Line 20%

8. VIETNAM MEDIA REGULATION
175 out of 180 on Press Freedom Index
47 Sustainable Development Goals
Article 69 vs. Article 258
Government requests to restrict YouTube
content is increasing
Can Vietnamese users dissent/criticise
their government?

9. PARTICIPANT A, 2020
ACTUALLY, I AM USUALLY TALKING
ABOUT MY LIFE WHICH WAS ALRIGHT. IT
WASN’T UNTIL I STARTED TALKING
ABOUT THE POLITICAL THAT THE VIEWS
SLOWED DOWN

10. DISCUSSION POINTS
• Similarities between participant and Facebook – shut it down if it can’t be shaped
• What are the impacts on cultural development if social media is shut down?
• How does UNESCO react to shutting it down?
• What does that mean for social media in the region?
• How might the Government function better with social media, certainly western based
platforms

11. SHUT IT DOWN OR SHAPE IT UP?
THE STATE OF VIETNAMESE
DIGITAL MEDIA IN 2021
DR JONATHON HUTCHINSON
DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION - UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
@DHUTCHMAN
Photo by Chris Slupski on Unsplash