BestVPN, January 5, 2018
Vietnam, now that it is improving economically, has joined the chorus of countries introducing measures to stifle anti-government opinions by unleashing the Force 47 cyber unit. It is not uncommon for dissent to grow amid economic improvement, as the economic growth can be uneven among all classes. It is a usual practice for the growing legion of “haves,” typically the government and its sycophants, to quell the “have-not’s” desire for sharing in the wealth.
As someone who grew up during the Vietnam War era (1964-74), Vietnam’s economic resurgence seems hard to fathom. And to a person in their 20s, 30s or 40s, it might be difficult to imagine how a country that was as poor, suppressed, and backward as it was back then could ever achieve the economic status that it currently enjoys.
But the same economic policies of free trade which are leading to the economic boom also gives rise to people wanting more freedom to express themselves. This is a no-no in a country with deep communist roots. So some freedoms must be tamped down. Paradoxically, this crackdown could hamper the country’s growth trajectory – one that owes much of its success to social media.
The latest round of censorship is proving problematic for tens of thousands of small businesses which rely on Facebook and other social-media platforms to reach their customers. Stifling free speech has the effect of impeding entrepreneurship, something countries with repressive regimes are ever so slowly coming to grips with. Experts warn that restricting access to the internet could damage one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. It wouldn’t be the first short-sighted regime to ignore repression’s long-term economic consequences.
Nervous about the chaos that the web could unleash, on 25 December 2017, Vietnam’s army unveiled its latest answer to the question of how to control the internet. Dubbed Force 47, it is a new 10,000-strong cyber unit which will trawl the web and counter any “wrongful opinions” about the communist government. The cyber unit’s mission is to refute anti-government opinions on Facebook and other platforms, and it represents the latest of Hanoi’s many attempts to quash dissent before it can gain a toe-hold.
Concurrent with the actions of Force 47, hackers allegedly aligned with Hanoi have installed malware on anti-government websites to track visitors to them. And, in tandem with the creation of the cyber unit, harsh penalties are being handed down to violators.
‘In November, a young blogger was given a seven-year prison sentence for “spreading propaganda against the state,” while a well-known environmentalist, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, was handed a 10-year sentence on the same charges in June.’
The government’s Internet assault is not one dimensional. It has encouraged businesses to pitch in and help thwart what the regime deems a growing threat. But not only has it encouraged the likes of Google and Facebook to respond more quickly to its requests to remove critical content, it is also mandating these companies establish representative offices, and provide expensive new server systems in-country to make it easier for the state to pressure social-media platforms such as theirs.
Predictably, commerce and industry advocates castigate the tactics, and point out that the moves will be counter-productive and possibly derail the economic growth-train, heretofore driven by social media freedoms. They are joined in opposition by Vietnamese activists in urging big tech companies to stand up to the government against what they say are attempts to limit free speech and contain critics.
It is apparent that Vietnam is taking cues from China’s almost decade-long blocking of Facebook, and of its suffocating firewall, in recognizing that it is better to deal with dissent while it is still a sapling and not a full-grown tree. However, China impedes its economic growth with its repressive privacy and free-speech policies. It’s just that it is such a large economy that this fact is glossed over, or maybe, deliberately sacrificed in the name of keeping order and power.
Hanoi should tread lightly here, because it is no economic juggernaut as is China, and very well may stymie its fragile growth prospects.
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January 6, 2018
Vietnam’s New Weapon against Online Dissent
by Nhan Quyen • [Human Rights]
BestVPN, January 5, 2018
Vietnam, now that it is improving economically, has joined the chorus of countries introducing measures to stifle anti-government opinions by unleashing the Force 47 cyber unit. It is not uncommon for dissent to grow amid economic improvement, as the economic growth can be uneven among all classes. It is a usual practice for the growing legion of “haves,” typically the government and its sycophants, to quell the “have-not’s” desire for sharing in the wealth.
As someone who grew up during the Vietnam War era (1964-74), Vietnam’s economic resurgence seems hard to fathom. And to a person in their 20s, 30s or 40s, it might be difficult to imagine how a country that was as poor, suppressed, and backward as it was back then could ever achieve the economic status that it currently enjoys.
But the same economic policies of free trade which are leading to the economic boom also gives rise to people wanting more freedom to express themselves. This is a no-no in a country with deep communist roots. So some freedoms must be tamped down. Paradoxically, this crackdown could hamper the country’s growth trajectory – one that owes much of its success to social media.
The latest round of censorship is proving problematic for tens of thousands of small businesses which rely on Facebook and other social-media platforms to reach their customers. Stifling free speech has the effect of impeding entrepreneurship, something countries with repressive regimes are ever so slowly coming to grips with. Experts warn that restricting access to the internet could damage one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. It wouldn’t be the first short-sighted regime to ignore repression’s long-term economic consequences.
Nervous about the chaos that the web could unleash, on 25 December 2017, Vietnam’s army unveiled its latest answer to the question of how to control the internet. Dubbed Force 47, it is a new 10,000-strong cyber unit which will trawl the web and counter any “wrongful opinions” about the communist government. The cyber unit’s mission is to refute anti-government opinions on Facebook and other platforms, and it represents the latest of Hanoi’s many attempts to quash dissent before it can gain a toe-hold.
Concurrent with the actions of Force 47, hackers allegedly aligned with Hanoi have installed malware on anti-government websites to track visitors to them. And, in tandem with the creation of the cyber unit, harsh penalties are being handed down to violators.
‘In November, a young blogger was given a seven-year prison sentence for “spreading propaganda against the state,” while a well-known environmentalist, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, was handed a 10-year sentence on the same charges in June.’
The government’s Internet assault is not one dimensional. It has encouraged businesses to pitch in and help thwart what the regime deems a growing threat. But not only has it encouraged the likes of Google and Facebook to respond more quickly to its requests to remove critical content, it is also mandating these companies establish representative offices, and provide expensive new server systems in-country to make it easier for the state to pressure social-media platforms such as theirs.
Predictably, commerce and industry advocates castigate the tactics, and point out that the moves will be counter-productive and possibly derail the economic growth-train, heretofore driven by social media freedoms. They are joined in opposition by Vietnamese activists in urging big tech companies to stand up to the government against what they say are attempts to limit free speech and contain critics.
It is apparent that Vietnam is taking cues from China’s almost decade-long blocking of Facebook, and of its suffocating firewall, in recognizing that it is better to deal with dissent while it is still a sapling and not a full-grown tree. However, China impedes its economic growth with its repressive privacy and free-speech policies. It’s just that it is such a large economy that this fact is glossed over, or maybe, deliberately sacrificed in the name of keeping order and power.
Hanoi should tread lightly here, because it is no economic juggernaut as is China, and very well may stymie its fragile growth prospects.