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Vietnam's strict new social media regulations strangle free speech, report says

By DAVID RISING - Feb 18, 2025, 05:10 AM ET
Last Updated - Feb 18, 2025, 11:46 AM EST
Vietnam Social Media Restrictions
FILE - A man walks past a row of T-shirts printed with Vietnamese flags in Hanoi, Vietnam on July 30, 2020.(AP Photo/Hau Dinh, File)

New government regulations on social media in Vietnam give authorities increased powers to prevent dissent and control the news

BANGKOK (AP) — New government regulations on social media in Vietnam give authorities increased powers to prevent dissent and control the news, along with the tools to more easily track down critics and silence them, according to an analysis released Tuesday.

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.

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“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.

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