Vietnam's strict new social media regulations strangle free speech, report says
Vietnam's authorities implemented 'Decree 147' in December, tightening regulations on social media companies like Facebook, X, YouTube and TikTok in a bid to further stifle criticism, said Ben Swanton, one of the authors of the report by The 88 Project, a group focused on human rights and free speech issues in Vietnam.
'Any challenge to the government and the Communist Party, any significant challenge to their official narrative of events, is perceived by them as a situation that is getting out of control,' he said in an interview from Thailand.
Among other things, the decree requires users to verify their accounts with phone numbers or national ID cards that must be provided to the government upon request, and for the social media companies to store their data in Vietnam.
It also prevents social media users from engaging in citizen journalism or posting information about suspected government wrongdoing, and requires companies to remove posts deemed illegal within 24 hours. The decree requires companies to allow authorities access to their internal search engines so that it can identify offending content.
Social media companies have until late March to be in compliance, 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, which owns YouTube, did not return emails.
Already, however, researchers have noticed a decline in political posts, Swanton said.
'In the last several years Hanoi has imprisoned or forced into exile the country's most prominent independent journalists, reformers, human rights activists, and dissidents. This has had a chilling effect that encourages people to engage in self-censorship,' he said. 'Decree 147 is designed to turn this chilling effect into an icy stranglehold on free speech.'
Vietnamese authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the Project 88 analysis or the intent behind the new decree.
Authorities tighten the screws on critical reporting
About 65 million Vietnamese have Facebook accounts, roughly two-thirds of the population, and some 35 million have YouTube accounts. About half of Vietnam's people say they get most of their news from social media.
Already, the government frequently insists critical posts from outside the country be geo-blocked so they cannot be accessed inside Vietnam and it has moved quickly to censor posts it deems unacceptable, like a video of a top minister eating a gold-encrusted steak in London in 2021 while Vietnam was on COVID-19 lockdown.
In October, a prominent Vietnamese blogger was sentenced to 12 years in prison for articles and videos exposing the corruption of government officials, and in January, a prominent Vietnamese lawyer was sentenced to three years in jail for Facebook posts criticizing the country's former top judge.
Project 88 researchers said the new decree will also give authorities better tools to go after those who just read or watch social media posts as well.
They noted a case last June in which police in one province went through the profiles of 13,328 members of a Facebook group that had information deemed 'hostile to the state' and identified 20 people in their province, went to their homes and demanded they leave the group.
'If implemented as intended, Decree 147 would likely make it less time consuming to identify members of groups like this and ensure that groups with anti-state content will be blocked in the country,' the report said.
It urges social media companies and others affected to refuse to comply with provisions of the decree that violate free expression rights, and for the United States and United Nations to pressure Vietnam to repeal the measure.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
39 minutes ago
- The Hill
Gabbard to slash offices, nearly half of staff at ODNI
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard plans to slash 40 percent of the agency's staff by October in a move she said would help transform the head of the intelligence community into 'ODNI 2.0.' Gabbard's cuts would reassign roles or eliminate various centers within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), including those that monitor foreign efforts to influence Americans, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including biological weapons, and a team monitoring for cyberattacks. A fact sheet from ODNI boasts the department has already slashed 500 jobs and that the future cuts would save an estimated $700 million from the agency that helps coordinate among the 18 different agencies that make up the sprawling U.S. intelligence community. Targeted in the restructuring is the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which has dedicated itself to tracking the efforts of U.S. adversaries to influence the U.S. public through social media and disinformation campaigns designed to sow division and shift votes. The Trump administration argues the center has been used 'to justify the suppression of free speech' and cited its work in responding to the Hunter Biden laptop. ODNI also accused the Foreign Malign Influence Center of 'falsely alleging Putin 'aspired' to help President Trump win the 2016 election,' though that conclusion is shared by most reports that have evaluated Russia's efforts in the 2016 contest, including in a bipartisan report from the Senate Intelligence Committee. Gabbard argued that other elements of the intelligence community already monitor foreign influence campaigns, 'making FMIC redundant' — the same argument used for the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center. The fact sheet argues it biosecurity mission is no longer needed after the COVID-related national emergency. 'It has become apparent that taking action to address global health issues falls well outside of ODNI's core mission,' ODNI states. Gabbard said the need for the shift was part of 'ending the weaponization of intelligence and holding bad actors accountable.' 'Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence,' Gabbard said in a statement. 'ODNI and the IC must make serious changes to fulfill its responsibility to the American people.' The shift comes a day after Gabbard revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former intelligence officials, many with ties to prior Democratic administrations. Even as a top Democrat agreed ODNI could use a revamp, he argued Gabbard was not the person to deliver it. 'Twenty years after it was established, there is broad, bipartisan agreement that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is in need of thoughtful reform. The Intelligence Authorization Act directs Director Gabbard to submit a plan to Congress outlining her proposed changes, and we will carefully review her proposals and conduct rigorous oversight to ensure any reforms strengthen, not weaken, our national security,' Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. 'But given Director Gabbard's track record of politicizing intelligence — including her decision just yesterday to revoke security clearances from career national security officials — I have no confidence that she is the right person to carry out this weighty responsibility.' Mark Zaid, a longtime national security lawyer, said the redesign was a clear effort to cut staff that might push back against the Trump administration 'This isn't about reform. It isn't about strengthening our intelligence agencies. It is about the Installation of loyalists & getting rid of anyone who opposes the patrimonialistic/authoritarian policies of Trump, regardless of whether DEM or GOP,' he wrote on X. Gabbard also proposes eliminating a number of other offices she accused, without evidence, of leaking intelligence of political biases. Among those slashed is the External Research Council, which Gabbard said amounted to 'politically appointed partisans who brought their external biases,' as well as the Strategic Futures Group, responsible for long-term forecasting on threats, which Gabbard accused of being used 'to push a partisan political agenda.' It's not entirely clear how many staff work at ODNI, but that figure has been a target of Senate Intelligence Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) who earlier this year said the office had nearly 2,000 staff. 'The ODNI staff is measured in the thousands, when it should be measured in the dozens, maybe a few hundred,' Cotton said at a hearing at the beginning of the year. 'I promise, that's going to change.' Cotton on Wednesday praised the move, even as he referenced the need for congressional review. 'Congress created the ODNI to be a lean organization that used small staffs to coordinate across the Intelligence Community and execute specific, important tasks. Today's announcement is an important step towards returning ODNI to that original size, scope, and mission. And it will help make it a stronger and more effective national security tool for President Trump,' he said in a statement. 'I look forwarded [sic] to working with Director Gabbard to implement these reforms and provide the ODNI with the legislative relief necessary to ensure our Intelligence Community can focus on its core mission: stealing secrets from our adversaries.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
New Year celebration videos misrepresented as China demonstrations
The beating of a young girl by three teenagers in southwestern China triggered public outrage, but a compilation viewed hundreds of thousands of times online does not show protests escalating into calls for the ouster of President Xi Jinping. The clips in fact show crowds gathering for New Year celebrations in several Chinese cities. The compilation, comprising four clips of huge crowds, was viewed more than 480,000 times after it was shared on Threads on August 6, 2025. "The Jiangyou incident in Sichuan, China, escalates as protestors force the police to retreat," reads part of the superimposed traditional Chinese text on the compilation, referring to a viral school bullying case in the southwestern city (archived link). "More than one million people participated in protests, calling for the overthrow of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party regime." Police said two teenage girls were sent to a correctional school for assaulting and verbally abusing a 14-year-old girl, footage of which was shared online. Onlookers and a third girl who participated in the abuse were "criticised and educated", the police said, adding that their guardians had been "ordered to exercise strict discipline". The case drew outrage online from some lamenting the punishment did not go further, and sparked rare protests in the country, where opposition to the ruling Communist Party and anything seen as a threat to the civil order is swiftly quashed. Footage showed crowds gathered outside the city hall in Jiangyou, with large crowds stretching around the block. Video also showed people being forcibly pulled aside, and police wearing SWAT uniforms subduing at least three people at an intersection with hundreds of bystanders. Several Taiwanese news organisations included footage from the protests in their reports (archived here, here and here). But the circulating compilation, which was shared elsewhere on YouTube, TikTok and Facebook, misuses unrelated clips. Reverse image searches on Google and Baidu using keyframes from the visuals found they all predate the protests in Jiangyou. Taiwanese fact-checking organisation Taiwan Factcheck Center also previously debunked the false claim the clips show escalating protests in China (archived link). New Year's celebrations The first falsely shared clip was previously shared on December 31, 2024 on Douyin, where it included a hashtag for "Hong Kong New Year's Eve Fireworks" (archived link). The video corresponds to Google Street View imagery of a stretch of Nathan Road -- one of Hong Kong's main thoroughfares (archived link). The second clip had earlier been shared on January 1, 2024 on Douyin, where its caption said it showed a New Year's countdown celebration in Nanning, China (archived link). Street imagery from Baidu Maps shows it was filmed near the Nanning Department Store in Xingning District (archived link). The third clip was posted on December 31, 2024 on Douyin, with the post saying it showed New Year's Eve in Kunming, China (archived link). Street imagery from Baidu Maps shows the two stores found in the Douyin video in the Nanping Pedestrian Street area (archived link). Finally, the fourth clip in the compilation depicts a New Year celebration in Guiyang, China (archived link). The same clip was earlier shared in a Douyin post from January 1, 2025 (archived link). AFP has previously debunked false claims related to protests in China. Solve the daily Crossword
The Hill
4 hours ago
- The Hill
‘South Park' mocks Trump's DC takeover in upcoming episode
An upcoming episode of 'South Park' is set to make fun of President Trump's efforts to crack down on crime in Washington, D.C. A teaser for the Wednesday evening episode, released on social media and YouTube, shows the iconic character 'Towlie' arriving in Washington, D.C. As 'Towlie' gets off a bus arriving in the district, a tank rolls by in front of the White House while the character says, 'This seems like the perfect place for a towel.' Trump has sparked widespread backlash with his takeover of the local police force and mobilization of National Guard troops to help fight crime in D.C. 'South Park' has used the first several episodes of its new season to mock Trump and his allies, poking fun at the administration's deportation efforts as well as controversy relating to the Jeffery Epstein files. The show has targeted media conglomerate Paramount, the parent company of Comedy Central which earlier this year awarded the show's creators a new lucrative contract for rights to broadcast the animated satire program.
