Vietnam’s controversial new “Decree 72 on the Management, Provision and Use of Internet Services and Online Information” went into effect on September 1. The full text in Vietnamese is here.*
As reported in VOA by Marianne Brown,”Critics say the new rules are aimed at stifling speech online and could discourage businesses from operating in Vietnam. But the government says the measures are aimed at protecting intellectual property and fighting plagiarism.”
William Gallo reports that under Decree 72, bloggers and users of social media are “not allowed to quote, gather or summarize information from press organizations or government websites.”
Last week, A U.S. State Department spokesperson issued a statement on behalf of the Freedom Online Coalition warning that “Decree 72 restricts online information flow and limits the sharing of certain types of news and other speech. Decree 72 appears to be inconsistent with Vietnam’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as its commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Phil Robertson with Human Rights Watch warned that “This is a law that has been established for selective persecution. This is a law that will be used against certain people who have become a thorn in the side of the authorities in Hanoi.”
However, Nguyen Thanh Huyen, head of the Ministry of Information’s Online Information Section, told Reuters “We never ban people from sharing information or linking news from websites. It was totally misunderstood. This is a normal decree which doesn’t go against any human right commitments.” An op-ed in the Asia Sentinel by retired diplomat David Brown warns that Western observers may assessing reports of human rights violations “out of context,” and states that “There’s not a lot of new content in Decree 72. Most of it simply repackages a 2008 instruction that sought to extend principles of public media management to a new phenomenon, the interactive Internet and the rise of social media.”
Decree applies to ISPs as well as users
A press release from the Committee to Protect Journalists warned that Decree 72 will require “both local and foreign companies that provide Internet services … to reveal the identities of users who violate numerous vague prohibitions against certain speech in Vietnamese law.”
The Asia Internet Coalition, a group of multinational internet companies including eBay, Facebook, and Google, issued a statement warning that “We believe that the decree will negatively affect Vietnam’s Internet ecosystem. In the long term, the Decree will stifle innovation and discourage businesses from operating in Vietnam, thereby hindering Vietnam’s goal to establish itself as an advanced competitive ICT nation.”
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* I was unable to find an English version, other than a machine translation which I felt was not good enough to post. If anyone has a good English version, please post in the comments or email. Thanks.
