Vietnam is deploying a 10,000-member military cyberwarfare unit to combat what the government sees as a growing threat of “wrongful views” proliferating on the Internet, local media said.
Force 47 has worked proactively against distorted information, People’s Army of Vietnam Political Bureau Vice Chairman Nguyen Trong Nghia said.
The disclosure comes as the government pressures YouTube and Facebook Inc to remove videos and accounts seen as damaging the reputations of leaders or promoting views opposing the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Facebook this year removed 159 accounts at Vietnam’s behest, while YouTube took down 4,500 videos, or 90 percent of what the government requested, Vietnamese Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan said last week.
The Vietnamese National Assembly is debating a cybersecurity bill that would require technology companies to store certain data on servers in the country.
In recent years, Vietnam has opened its doors to Silicon Valley, including Alphabet Inc. That is unlike China, which blocked Facebook, Google and Twitter Inc, paving the way for local services such as WeChat, QQ, Baidu Inc and Weibo Corp to flourish.
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