Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Go.vn, Vietnam's Communist Answer to Facebook

by Matthew Zuras on October 5, 2010 at 11:45 AM

screenshot of go.vn
When you're running an authoritarian regime that's hellbent on dictating the flow of information to its citizenry, how do you deal with an entity like Facebook, born in freedom-loving America? Why, you just build your own site, and ban the 'Book. Vietnam launched a trial version of Go.vn, the Communist version of the social network, back in May, but it's heavy emphasis on the lives of Ho Chi Minh and other Vietnamese political-military heroes "didn't set the Internet ablaze," according to the Wall Street Journal. The full version of the site, run by the state-owned Vietnam Multimedia Corp., will be launched at the end of the year, featuring photo-sharing, poking, and even a "violent video game."

Sounds like our own Facebook, no? But in Vietnam, users have to sign up with their government-issued I.D. numbers and full names. And the state will, of course, monitor every single communication for whiffs of dissidence. But don't let that scare off all you youngsters, since Le Doan Hop, Minister for Information and Communications, recently wrote on the site that Go.vn was "trustworthy" and perfect for teens looking for "culture, values and benefits."

Hop thinks that the site will see over 40 million users (almost half of the country's population) by 2015. When the Journal asked some random Vietnamese about the site, however, one young man said, "I didn't even know it existed."

Perhaps the youngsters will be drawn to Go.vn's bloody action video game, described by the Journal as a "violent multiplayer contest featuring a band of militants bent on stopping the spread of global capitalism." (While over in our corner of the world we have 'Medal of Honor,' in which players get points for shooting bands of militants. Potato, potahto -- we're all the same, eh?)

Phan Anh Tuan, a vice-director at Vietnam Multimedia, told the Journal that Go.vn will be focusing on incorporating even more video games to draw in the youth, among whom there are scores of ardent gamers, Net fanatics and electronics fiends. They apparently crack iPhones for use on different networks, and use proxy servers to access the banned Facebook. Will they be wooed by Go.vn's pandering to their gaming bloodlust?

The Journal notes that there's been some backlash to the site, with one person posting online "make 'go' go away." For many Facebook users, that sentiment has a familiar ring.

Tags: censorship, communism, facebook, gaming, go.vn, LeDoanHop, politics, privacy, socialnetworking, top, vietnam, VietnamMultimediaCorp., web

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular