New Vietnamese Internet rules requiring Facebook and TikTok to verify user identities and hand over data to authorities came into force yesterday, in what critics say is the latest attack on freedom of expression.
Under “Decree 147,” all tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify users’ accounts via their phone numbers or Vietnamese identification numbers and store that information alongside their full name and date of birth.
They must provide that data to authorities on request and remove any content that the government regards as “illegal” within 24 hours.
Photo: AFP
All social media sites had been given 90 days to provide data on “the total number of regular visits from Vietnam” and the number of regular users per month to authorities, the VNExpress Web site said.
“Decree 147 will be used to publicly suppress those with different viewpoints,” said rights advocate Dang Thi Hue, who writes about politics and social issues on her Facebook account, which has 28,000 followers.
The decree was “the latest sign of infringement of basic freedoms ... with a vague line between what is legal and what is not,” said Le Anh Hung, a former political prisoner. “No one wants to go to jail, so of course some activists will be more cautious and afraid of this decree.”
Vietnam’s administration generally moves swiftly to stamp out dissent and arrest critics, especially those who find an audience on social media.
In October, blogger Duong Van Thai — who had almost 120,000 followers on YouTube, where he regularly recorded livestreams critical of the government — was jailed for 12 years on charges of publishing anti-state information.
Decree 147 builds on a 2018 cybersecurity law that was sharply criticized by the US, the EU and Internet freedom advocates who said it mimics China’s repressive censorship of the Internet.
The decree also says that only verified accounts can livestream, impacting the exploding number of people earning a living through social commerce on sites such as TikTok.
Aside from the ramifications for social media firms, the new laws also include curbs on gaming for people under the age of 18, designed to prevent addiction.
Game publishers are expected to enforce a time limit of an hour per game session and not more than 180 minutes a day for all games.
Just over half of Vietnam’s 100 million population regularly plays such games, data research firm Newzoo said.
A large proportion of the population is also on social media, with the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications estimating the country has about 65 million Facebook users, 60 million on YouTube and 20 million on TikTok.
The force of the decree was yet to be felt at a small online gaming cafe in capital, Hanoi, where about a dozen young people were glued to their desktop screens.
“I don’t know anything about a time limit for the games,” said one 15-year-old boy who said he had skipped class to come and play. “I just keep playing, and as you see, it still works.”
“I never have to show an ID or student card to enter a gameshop or for my game account online,” he said. “I don’t know how [the decree] will work. Let’s see.”
The owner of the cafe, who charges the equivalent of about US$0.30 for an hour of gaming, was similarly nonchalant.
“I have no idea what this decree is about. I don’t know if it will work or not,” the owner said. “My business is still going normally. They pay and we let them use the desktop for their gaming. It’s simple.”
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
NASA on Saturday rolled out its towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft as it began preparations for its first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years. The maneuver, which takes up to 12 hours, would allow the US space agency to begin a string of tests for the Artemis 2 mission, which could blast off as early as Feb. 6. The immense orange and white SLS rocket, and the Orion vessel were slowly wheeled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and painstakingly moved 6.5km to Launch Pad 39B. If the
RSS