'Barbie', Blackpink concert banned in Vietnam; here's why social media users demand boycott

‘Barbie’ and K-Pop group Blackpink have caused outrage in Vietnam as they used maps with China's controversial nine-dash line for promotions.

The film has been banned in Vietnam after the revelation of a sequence with map of nine-dash line. The film was to release in Vietnam on July 21 but now it will not be screened.

Blackpink was supposed to perform in Hanoi on July 23, but the concert has also been called off. The concert’s organizer used a map with nine-dash line.

Social media users have demanded the boycott of the performance. Though the organizer has apologized for the map, but this incident has raised China's territorial claims in the South China Sea.

For the unversed, the nine-dash line is a map used by China to demonstrate its sovereignty over the majority of the South China Sea. Several countries, including Vietnam, disagree with the boundary.

Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and Information has launched investigation into the map. Pham Thu Hang, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, admitted that Blackpink's Vietnam event had become a "hot-button issue."

"In Vietnam, the promotion and use of products or publications featuring the 'nine-dash line' is a violation of Vietnamese law and is unacceptable," Hang stated.