Hua Quoc Anh, a Vietnamese TikToker, is facing backlash after filming a video at Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple. He posted the video on TikTok suggesting that Angkor Wat is located in Thailand, the state-owned media outlet Lao Dong reported.
With over 700.000 followers on TikTok, Hua Quoc Anh certainly has his share of impact online and it is safe to say that his videos don’t go unnoticed. So when the makeup artist and content creator made a video in Angkor Wat in the Cambodian town of Siem Reap on November 4th, all eyes were on him. However, that is when the influencer made a big mistake, a mistake which later led to him being served a 308$ fine by the Vietnamese government.
@huaquocanh99
The video, which has since been removed, contained two girls in at Angkor Wat who were dressed in “inappropriate attire”. Moreover, the video contained integrated images of the Thai flag and the Thai king. Meanwhile, a voice could be heard saying “Hello Thailand”.
According to the Angkor Wat World Heritage Conservation Authority (Apsara), the video was culturally insensitive towards Cambodia’s heritage and therefore, the organisation asked TikTok to remove the content. Some locals also saw the post, which resurfaced despite the initial ban from TikTok, as offensive, especially with the tensions between Cambodia and Thailand over cultural heritage.
Following the demand by Apsara, Cambodian authorities also demanded adherence to Vietnamese social media laws, which led to Quoc Anh being fined. Vietnamese state-owned media outlet Lao Dong stated the government asked Hua Quoc Anh to “strictly comply with relevant legal regulations when using the internet” and to do so un a “responsible, civilised, progressive” manner.
The TikToker himself wrote a post on Facebook stating that “right now, Quoc Anh has too many emotions in his heart that cannot be described in a few lines of text” after meeting with the authorities at Vietnam’s Department of Information and Communication in Ho Chi Minh City.
Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for the Human Rights Watch, released a comment following the incident: “No one really believes that Siem Reap belongs to Thailand. So the appropriate step would have been to laugh at this social influencer’s ignorance rather than resort to criminal penalties.”
