In Vietnam, State 'Friends' You

HANOI—The Internet poses a challenge for authoritarian regimes around the world. But Vietnam's leaders think they have figured out a new way to tame it—by launching their own, Communist-friendly answer to popular social-networking sites like Facebook. It's called go.vn, and state-owned Vietnam Multimedia Corp. launched a trial version on revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh's birthday, May 19. A full version is due to go up at the end of the year. Many of its features will be familiar to anybody versed in tagging, poking and defriending: People can post photos, link to friends and ping messages back and forth online. The catch is that users have to submit their full names and government-issued identity numbers before they can access the site. Security services monitor websites in Vietnam, whose authoritarian, one-party dictatorship treats dissidents ruthlessly.

With its social-networking site, Vietnam aims to attract youth, such as these students in a Hanoi Internet cafe

Source: online.wsj.com...

well we lost the war ,but it certainley seems we've won their hearts and minds. and do you really think the US government doesn't monitor facebook?

Nguyen's status: Day 273 in reeducation happy camp of Great Leader! So sorry I post that Ho Chi Min City makes me emo. Nguyen forgot happy then, but has learned from Great Leader to be HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

Communist social networking... Saves your neighbors the guilt by letting you turn yourself in.