HÀ NỘI — Tributes have streamed in over social media soon after the Vietnam News Agency issued a special communiqué, announcing that Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng passed away at 1.38 pm on July 19, 2024, at the Central Military Hospital 108 in Hà Nội. A moving eulogy by an anonymous author, which demonstrates the outpouring of grief of the Vietnamese people for the beloved leader, has gone viral on various platforms, including Facebook, Youtube, TikTok, Zalo and Viber. Netizens’ positive messages have affirmed that Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng’s prestige has created the power of solidarity not only for the Party but also the whole people. As of January 2023, Việt Nam had 77.93 million internet users, or 79.1 per cent of the population. Among them, there were 70 million social network users, with 66.2 million signing up for Facebook, 63 million for YouTube, 10.35 million for Instagram, 49.86 million for TikTok, 5.2 million for LinkedIn, and 4.1 million for Twitter.
