Vietnam tells fashion brands to respect its sovereignty over Paracel and Spratly Islands
All propaganda forms and content promotion that go against historical facts and international law hold no
Reportedly, to celebrate its 9th birthday, fashion brand Yody posted a video and image of a map design of Vietnam missing two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. Immediately, the public reacted, and many opinions demanded a boycott.
On the morning of April 10, YODY officially issued a statement apologizing to the Vietnamese people for the above incident. "After receiving the information, we swiftly examined the suitable content and admitted that the aforementioned omission had occurred in a film conveying a thank-you greeting to consumers on the occasion of the 9th birthday celebration. This problem emerged because our communications staff was careless in processing the image and censoring the video's content." YODY said.
"YODY asserts that as a Vietnamese firm formed by Vietnamese people, it is well aware that this error is unforgivable. As a result, we sincerely apologize to the people of Vietnam for our error. It is an important lesson in the process of dealing with clients.", the YODY statement stated.
Read more: Fashion brand Yody apologizes for using a map with incorrect sovereignty » Breaking News, Latest World News Updates - VietReader Viet Nam
Not the first time a brand has used the wrong image of Vietnam's map. Previously, users discovered that the map of Grab's application in Vietnam showed false information about Vietnam's sovereignty in the East Sea. In particular, for the Truong Sa archipelago, in addition to a few Vietnamese entity names such as Son Ca, Sinh Ton, and so on, the names of other entities are displayed in Chinese and English. 
Mischief Reef, which is under Vietnamese jurisdiction, is only represented in English and Chinese. Grab's map also displays Fiery Cross Reef as "Nansha District" or "Nam Sa District" under the Vietnamese administration.
"This has nothing to do with Grab's appreciation for the Vietnamese country and people." "We attentively consider all concerns and sincerely apologize for any troubles that may arise. "Grab Vietnam is committed to the Vietnamese market for the long term and is continually seeking new methods to contribute to the country's socioeconomic development." said a Grab Vietnam representative.
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Earlier, Khanh Hoa Provincial Police said that it had just issued a decision to sanction Peak Events Joint Stock Company - the organizer of the Oceanman international swimming tournament - for violating the law. Peak Event Joint Stock Company (Ho Chi Minh City), the organizer of the event "OCEAMAN International Outdoor Swimming Tournament 2023," was fined 25 million VND by the Khanh Hoa Provincial Police for the behavior of posting, broadcasting, or using images of maps of Vietnam that do not fully represent or misrepresent national sovereignty, as specified in Point b, Clause 3, Article 99 of the Government's Decree 14/2022. 
It is thorough that these are not isolated instances of maps being used to distort Vietnam's sovereignty. Many websites currently use map data from OpenMapTitles and OpenStreetMap. These two open-source tools provide location and location data from many sources, including user contributions. The original OpenStreetMap map currently contains lots of incorrect information about Vietnam's sovereignty over the water and islands in the East Water.
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