Countries that hinder the free operation of the internet, both for users and for technology companies, are "growing and multiplying" as their governments worry that too much freedom is hurting, in other words facilitating dissidents and undermining it ( usually one-party and authoritarian) their regime.
The latest "case" concerns Vietnam, which from the first day of 2019 enacted a new strict cyber-legislation, which requires technology companies such as Google and social media such as Facebook, to remove immediately - within a day at most - the content that the communist authorities of the country announce that they consider contrary to the policy of the state and "toxic" to society.
The new legislation, which was passed (with a 91% majority) by the Vietnamese parliament in 2018 and has been in force since this year, has already been criticized by the US, the European Union and non-governmental organizations, which accuse Vietnam of imitating China’s similar internet censorship policy and suppresses citizens ’freedom of expression.
"With the sweeping powers that the law gives to the government to monitor cyber activity, there is no longer a safe place in Vietnam where people can speak freely," said an Amnesty International spokesman.
Under new Vietnamese law, companies such as Facebook and Google are required to immediately provide any personal information requested by their government to their users, forcing them to open a representative office in the country if they wish to operate. The powerful Ministry of Public Security has given technology companies in the country 12 months to comply.
Commenting on the new law, Facebook announced that it would protect its users' rights to free expression and that it would "remove content that violates its (Facebook) standards as soon as it becomes aware of them", adding that it has a more general and clear process to handle relevant requests from governments around the world.
Google, which plans to open an office in Hanoi, declined to comment at this time on the new restrictive legislation, which prohibits users from disseminating information deemed anti-government, anti-national, distorting in Vietnamese history or " which can cause confusion and damage to socio-economic activities ".
Vietnam has hardened its stance in recent years, and dozens of activists for online and universal freedoms have been jailed. Human Rights Watch has called on the Vietnamese government to suspend implementation of the new government law. A spokesman for the group said: "The law is designed to further expand the oversight of the Ministry of Public Security, to identify critics and to deepen the Communist Party's monopoly on power."
Last week, the Vietnam Journalists 'Association announced a new code of conduct for its members' use of social media, which prohibits them from posting news, images and comments that "contradict" the state. Reporters Without Borders has criticized both the new code and the new cyber law, calling it a "comprehensive model of information control", according to AFP.
On the other hand, analysts believe that the new law will limit Vietnam's ambitions to develop its digital economy and attract relevant foreign investment. Vietnam has a population of 94 million, of which about 54 million are regular users of social media. The country ranks seventh in the number of very active Facebook users.
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