Vietnam’s strict new social media rules strangled free speech – The Times of India

Bangkok: According to an analysis issued to the new government rules officials on social media in Vietnam on Tuesday, increase the powers to stop dissatisfaction and control the news, and more easily to track and silence critics With the equipment for, according to an analysis released on Tuesday.
Vietnam officials implemented “decree 147” in December, in a bid for tightly criticizing the rules on Facebook, X, YouTube and Tikok on social media companies, Ben Swanton said, one of the writers of 88 project reports , A group, a group, a group. Vietnam focused on human rights and free speech issues.
He said in an interview in Thailand, “Any challenge for the government and the Communist Party, any important challenge to his official story of events, is considered by him as a situation that is out of control. ”
Among other things, users in decree require to verify their accounts with phone number or national ID card, which should be provided to the government at request, and collecting their data in Vietnam for social media companies. For.
This prevents social media users from engaging in civil journalism or posting information about suspected government wrongdoing, and companies need to remove illegally understood positions within 24 hours. The decree requires companies to allow officers to reach their internal search engines so that it can identify objectionable materials.
Social media companies have compliance by the end of March, and it is not yet clear whether they will try to push back. Tiktok and Facebook refused to comment on their plans, while X and Google, who owns YouTube, did not return the email.
Already, however, the researchers have seen a decline in political positions, Swayanton said.
He said, “Hanoi has deported the country’s most prominent independent journalists, reformers, human rights activists and dissidents in the last several years. It has had a cool effect that encourages people to engage in self-sensorship, “He said. “Decree 147 is designed to strangle this chilling effect on free speech.”
Vietnamese officials did not respond to the request for comment Project 88 The intention of analysis or new decree.
Officials tightened the screws on significant reporting
About 65 million Vietnamese have Facebook accounts, about two-thirds of the population, and some 35 million have Youtube accounts. About half of Vietnam people say that they get most of their news from social media.
Already, the government often emphasizes important positions from outside the country, is geo-block, so they cannot be accessed inside Vietnam and it has gone to post the sensor quickly, it is unacceptable The video of a top minister, such as a video of a top minister, was a gold -eating video -eating video in 2021 while Vietnam Kovid -19 was on lockdown.
In October, a prominent Vietnamese Blogger was sentenced to 12 -year prison for articles and videos highlighting corruption of government officials, and in January, a prominent Vietnamese lawyer was criticized by Facebook who criticized the former top judge of the country. The post was sentenced to three years in jail.
Researchers at Project 88 said that the new decree will also give officials better equipment to go after people who only read or see social media posts.
He noted a case in last June in which the police in a province went through a profile of 13,328 members of a Facebook group, in which the information was “hostile to the state” and identified 20 people in their province, their homes I went into and demanded that they leave the group.
The report said, “If applied as an intention, decree 147 will probably be blocked to identify members of such groups and to ensure that groups with anti -state content in the country will be blocked . ”
This urges social media companies and others to refuse to follow the provisions of a decree violating free expression rights, and for the United States and for the United States and United Nations To create pressure to Vietnam to cancel the measurement.