ABSTRACT

In this case study, based on public participation concepts and the Uses and Gratifications theory, the authors attempt to identify the main themes of users’ discussions on three Facebook pages during a 2015 protest against cutting down 6,700 trees in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, and thereby explain the motivation behind these discussions. The discussion is further supported with insight gained from in-depth interviews with the administrators of the pages enabling readers to understand how these pages were managed to help the spontaneous activists achieve their goals. The protest opposing the cutting down of trees in Hanoi can be considered the first time in Vietnam whereby ordinary citizens successfully caused the termination of a project initiated by the local government by voicing their opinions on social media.