Distorted perceptions of culture and history.

VTC News•27/04/2023

Alarm

In the poem "Lượm," there is a line that reads , "The little boy, so small and nimble." Through the character of Lượm, the poet portrays the image of a young boy working as a messenger in the wars to defend the homeland.

From the TikTok parody of the poem — Offensive images accompanied by satirical captions that defame historical figures.

However, the beautiful image of the messengers has been distorted in recent days. On TikTok, a rap parody created by 2see and arranged by DJ FWIN has stripped away the sacred meaning of the poem.

Specifically, the rap lyrics are derogatory towards historical figures: "The little boy with the bowl-cut hairstyle," and many other nonsensical words. These derogatory and distorted lyrics about historical figures spread rapidly as hundreds of TikTok accounts used the parody rap to superimpose images. The superimposed images were also extremely offensive: students misbehaving in class, posing suggestively, and even showing off their bodies...

The massive user base propelled the background music trending, leading to hundreds of other clips being produced using this music. The hashtag #chubeloatchoat became a trending topic in TikTok searches. By the morning of April 26th, the hashtag #chubeloatchoat had reached 23.2 million views on the social media platform.

Associate Professor Tran Thanh Nam (Faculty of Education , Vietnam National University, Hanoi) affirmed that social media users belong to many age groups. However, he expressed particular concern about TikTok, noting that many studies indicate that users aged 10-14 spend the most time on this social network.

"This age group lacks firm convictions, critical thinking skills, and sometimes cannot distinguish between genuine and fake content," said Associate Professor Tran Thanh Nam. Meanwhile, many social media channel owners seek fame through gimmicks, thereby attracting huge numbers of views and likes.

A segment of young people lack sufficient knowledge and experience in acquiring information, resulting in limited ability to select and evaluate information sources. Dr. Nguyen Tuan Anh (Institute for Youth Studies) commented: "When they see parody songs and imitate them, inaccurate information deeply penetrates their minds, distorting their perception of literary works and real historical figures."

Eliminate harmful and toxic content.

While their ability to filter and evaluate information sources is limited, young people are constantly exposed to countless unhealthy cultural products, songs with empty rhetoric, distortions, and defamation of historical figures on the internet.

The misinformation that young people are exposed to daily fosters an ungrateful attitude towards previous generations. They fail to understand the sacrifices made by those generations. Parody music videos also negatively impact the character development of young people, as they constantly imitate the lifestyles, thoughts, and behaviors depicted in these videos online.

On a deeper level, Dr. Nguyen Tuan Anh argues that prolonged exposure to unhealthy cultural products will cause patriotism among a segment of young people to gradually fade.

"This is one of the loopholes and weaknesses that hostile forces exploit. The younger generation's perceptions are easily misled and manipulated by unofficial, distorted information, or even information from hostile forces that incites unrest or smears the regime," Dr. Nguyen Tuan Anh shared with Tien Phong newspaper.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) is actively addressing violations of Vietnamese law by cross-border social media platforms, most notably TikTok. In early April, Mr. Le Quang Tu Do, Director of the Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information Department ( MIC ), stated: “After a period of peak development for social media platforms, now is the peak for short-video platforms, with TikTok being a prime example.”

Authorities have analyzed and compiled six major violations by TikTok, including the use of automated content distribution algorithms to create trends and spread sensational, clickbait content, regardless of whether it is harmful, offensive, or negatively impacts the community and young people.

According to Mr. Le Quang Tu Do, TikTok's violations have serious consequences, creating a favorable environment for the spread of fake news, causing economic damage and social instability. Unhealthy videos lead young people to imitate and follow bad and offensive trends, distorting their perceptions and lifestyles.

Harmful content continues to increase and spread rapidly thanks to TikTok's algorithms. According to Dr. Nguyen Tuan Anh, inspecting and controlling the TikTok social media platform is difficult because its servers are located abroad. He believes that if the servers were located in Vietnam, authorities could completely control the content being posted.

"Vietnam has also built mechanisms to block and filter information, but we don't have enough time or resources to identify and eliminate harmful and toxic information," the expert analyzed.

To address this situation, Dr. Nguyen Tuan Anh suggested that extensive and thorough dissemination of information is needed to help users understand and develop resistance to online content, and to know how to choose cultural products online. Simultaneously, education on aesthetic values should be combined with this, so that young people understand that "beauty should be celebrated, and ugliness should be condemned."

After receiving much negative feedback from the public, 2see, the creator of the rap song, issued an apology. “First, I apologize to the author To Huu and the audience. The song was written two years ago, when the trend of parodying poems was popular on social media. I took comments from the internet and turned them into a song. When I uploaded it, I only thought it was a harmless song; I didn't think things would go this far,” 2see said. The author also hid the song on YouTube and deleted the original parody from all platforms. Although the original version has been removed from the platforms, hundreds of re-uploaded and reused versions of the song remain.

(Source: tienphong.vn)

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