'Increasingly complicit': Google, Facebook accused of censoring content in Vietnam

Amnesty International has accused tech giants like Facebook and Google of censoring dissent in Vietnam at the behest of the authorities. Amnesty International, in a 78-page report on how tech giants are operating in repressive countries, has accused Facebook and YouTube of blocking content deemed critical of the authorities. All while State-sponsored harassment of everyday users continues on social media. 

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'Increasingly complicit'

The report titled 'Let us Breathe!: Censorship and criminalization of online expression in Viet Nam' is based on dozens of interviews with human rights activists, including former prisoners of conscience, lawyers, journalists, and writers. The report states that Vietnam is currently holding 170 people for criticising authorities, of whom 69 are held for their social media activity. 

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"In the last decade, the right to freedom of expression flourished on Facebook and YouTube in Viet Nam. More recently, however, authorities began focusing on peaceful online expression as an existential threat to the regime. Today these platforms have become hunting grounds for censors, military cyber-troops and state-sponsored trolls. The platforms themselves are not merely letting it happen – they’re increasingly complicit," said Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns.

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Facebook in April this year announced that it had agreed to increase its compliance with requests from the Vietnamese authorities to remove content from the platform the latter deemed "anti-national". The social media giant justified its decision by claiming that authorities in Vietnam were deliberately slowing the traffic down to convey a warning. Meanwhile, YouTube is known for being a favourite of the Vietnamese authorities because of its high rate of compliance with requests from local law bodies. 

Netizens have complained of their content being blocked under vaguely defined local laws, including offences such as “abusing democratic freedoms” under the country’s Criminal Code. 

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