Vietnam set to tighten clamps on Facebook and Google

A struggle over internet laws in Vietnam is pitting a government keen on maintaining tight control against U.S. technology companies trying to fight off onerous new rules - with the country's online dissidents among the biggest losers.

The latest conflict centres on new cybersecurity legislation set for a vote by Vietnamese lawmakers later this month. It aims to impose new legal requirements on internet companies, and hardens policing of online dissent.

Facebook, Google and other global companies are pushing back hard against provisions that would require them to store data on Vietnamese users locally and open offices in the country. But they have not taken the same tough stance on parts of the proposed law that would bolster the government's crackdown on online political activism.

Vietnam offers a case study in the conflicting pressures the likes of Facebook and Google confront when operating in countries with repressive governments. It also shows how authoritarian regimes try to walk a line in controlling online information and suppressing political activism without crippling the digital economy.

Such tensions are playing out across Southeast Asia, where the enormous popularity of Facebook and Google has created lucrative business opportunities and outlets for political dissent. With that, though, has come both government censorship and a way to get propaganda to large audiences efficiently.

The region is particularly important for Facebook and Google because most Internet users in China are blocked from accessing them.

An industry group called the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) is leading efforts to soften the proposed cyber law in Vietnam. Jeff Paine, managing director of the AIC, said he and others were able to raise concerns about the law directly with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and other top government officials when they visited Singapore last month.

The discussions took place as part of a seminar about internet issues that included academics, industry officials and the high-level Vietnamese delegation, according to Paine. He said there was "a healthy dialogue" that focused mostly on how Vietnam can leverage the next stages of the digital revolution.

But he said there was no discussion of content restrictions. The Vietnamese government did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment for this article.

Political activists in Vietnam rely on social media to rally support, and the new cyber law comes on the heels of an April letter from more than 50 rights groups and activists to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg accusing the company of working too closely with the Vietnamese government to stifle dissent.

Facebook and Google say they have to abide by local laws in the countries where they operate.

Facebook's latest "transparency report," released Tuesday, shows that in the second half of last year, the company began blocking content in Vietnam for violations of local law for the first time. The company reported 22 such instances - though it said they were prompted by "private reports of defamation" rather than direct government requests.

Google last year also blocked YouTube videos at the request of the government for the first time. Updated figures released Friday show the company was asked to remove more than 6500 videos in 2017, mostly for criticizing the government, and that it complied with a majority of the requests.

The transparency reports do show that the companies don't automatically do the bidding of the government. Facebook said it had received 12 government requests for Facebook user account data in 2017 and complied with only 4 of them, all of which were "emergency" requests. The company defines an emergency as involving "imminent risk of serious physical injury or death."

In cases where content is alleged to violate local law, both companies say takedown requests are subject to legal review, and when they comply the material is only blocked locally.

Direct government censorship requests don't tell the whole story though.

Facebook also removes content and blocks accounts for violating its own global "community standards," which bar material and behaviours ranging from posting pornography to hate speech and inciting violence.

“The first thing we do when a government tells us about content that violates laws is we look at whether it violates our standards," said Monika Bickert, Facebook's vice president of global policy management. The company this week began providing data on community standards violations but does not break it down by country.

"My account was blocked for 8 months," said Le Van Dung, an independent journalist in Vietnam who signed the letter to Zuckerberg. "I sent letters to Facebook management for months but there's only an automatic reply saying they have completed your request."

His account was restored last month, the day after the appeal to Zuckerberg was sent, he said.

Facebook said Dung's account was correctly removed for violating community standards provisions barring "spam" activities and was restored by mistake. Dung denies engaging in spam. He did, though, have more than one account. Multiple accounts are not allowed on Facebook and fall within the company's definition of spam behaviour.