Trying to understand Vietnamese point of view

Travelfar wrote:

I am puzzled by what I read in this news article:

https://vietnamnet.vn/en/entertainment- … 70785.html

I agree with the right of Vietnam to regulate the content of material being brought into the country, but the second part of the third paragraph which reads "... to stop using Vietnamese subtitles in movies and TV programs provided by Netflix to users in Vietnam." puzzled me.

Can anyone suggest an explanation for not allowing subtitles (captions) by Netflix?  A few years ago, TV broadcasters here were told that they must provide subtitles for content that was not in Vietnamese.

I'm aware that many times the captions do not correctly match what is being said on screen.

Perhaps there was an incident that was especially upsetting to the government and so now they won't want any captions made to give false or misleading or inflammatory or subversive information or display offensive words (the kind some filters display as ****)

It would only take one high party member to be offended or upset about something they saw to initiate more conservative rules

I would be happy with viettel not constantly moving channels around, and when it says next being the actual programme that comes next

Travelfar wrote:

Can anyone suggest an explanation for not allowing subtitles (captions) by Netflix?  A few years ago, TV broadcasters here were told that they must provide subtitles for content that was not in Vietnamese.

Below is my translation of the most important part of the original Vietnamese article: 

"The Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information requires Netflix to:

- remove movies and TV programs with contents that violate Vietnamese laws and sovereignty.

- stop displaying Vietnamese subtitles in such movies and TV programs provided to users in Vietnam as said content violates the Children Law, Press Law, and Cinema Law, amongst others.

Specifically:

- The contents are not edited to match Vietnamese cultural traditions and customs.

- The translated vulgar words undermine the purity of Vietnamese language.

- The subtitle allows children to easily view content that is not suitable for their ages and mental development.

In short, Netflix is required to terminate the subtitle (of the offensive contents) that are being provided to Vietnamese users."

I hope that answers your question.  Not all subtitles are being removed, only the ones violating the laws.  Since it's not practical to remove some subtitles while retaining the rest, Netflix is required to remove all subtitles of any offensive programs.

Which is fine IMO. Vietnamese subtitles are passable when they're accurate and cringeworthy when they're not (the latter is about half of the time), thus removing them wouldn't be a great miss.

Note:  I do agree with the last sentence of the "specifically" section ("The subtitle allows children to easily view content that is not suitable for their ages and mental development.")

I've been telling many Vietnamese children why it's not appropriate that they use the (so many) American curse words and offensive slangs.  "Because those are bad words" was not an acceptable explanation to them.  I had to ask them how they would feel if those words were applied to them, how their mothers would suffer if being called by those terms, and how their fathers would react if being seen as the images those words invoke.  Strong subject to discuss with children who are not even related to me.

Ciambella wrote:

I hope that answers your question.  Not all subtitles are being removed, only the ones violating the laws.  Since it's not practical to remove some subtitles while retaining the rest, Netflix is required to remove all subtitles of any offensive programs.

Thank you for the clarification, and that does answer my question since it seemed overly broad to require all subtitles to be removed from all videos.