Banning Google and Facebook: wrongful stamp unlikely to be erased!

Previously the Land Reform (in the 1950s) was a massacre of a limited portion of the population and it aimed at seizing power and social property, to affirm the domination and power of a new regime. The Land Reform did not spark a fire strong enough to burn down the young administration since it was supported by a majority of illiterate people then. Later, it was somewhat tolerated to be forgotten as it was administered by leaders of limited capabilities and there was a lot of work to be done during the post-war period. Socially, tens of thousands of victims died then owing to the direct social consequences of the motto “Intellectuals, Bourgeoisie, Landowners, and Village Authorities all must be ‘uprooted’ and wiped out completely”, which was understood briefly as: kill the smart, spare the stupid; kill the rich to push the country into the vicious circle of poverty. Since then, social consequences of the wrongdoing have been proved after several decades of country’s history under the regime’s domination. And the political outcome is now public knowledge.

Neither a political power nor an army, both Google and Facebook pose no threat to the current government. They are simply communication means. But the Internet in general, and Google, Facebook in particular, have always proved that they are the quickest and most useful channels to approach man’s information. In other words, depriving people of the right to gain knowledge and become a civilized society is a deliberately stupid action, as opposed to social growth and civilization.

Unlike the killings by gunfire in the Land Reform in the 1950s, this bill is going to create far more notorious consequences as the 90-million population in Vietnam will lose the right to approach a better future just to protect the political benefits of a few million individuals whose wrongdoing is very likely to be exposed and can in no way be accepted in a fair and civilized society. Except for those who either support it for personal benefits or are unable to understand it, this bill is going to negatively affect ‘mental lives’ of nearly 60 million people, or 2/3 of the country’s population, who are currently using the Internet and nearly 90 million who will be likely to turn their back on the regime and protest it in different ways.

Socio-economically, dozens of millions of people who make their living by doing online business will of course be hostile toward the bill. Tens of millions of people working in Internet-based businesses and companies will encounter difficulties; millions of families will therefore be affected so badly that they will show minimum respect for the regime. Also, this means a deadly blow to the regime; not only will the bill harm the people, it will hit the currently empty national budget owing to losses beyond calculation.

Those making the bill might have a suggestion: instead of logging on Google and Facebook, use Vietnam’s Coccoc and China’s Baidu ? If this is the case, they are somewhat stupid for not knowing that Coccoc browser is not popular in Vietnam not because users do not appreciate “a domestic product”, but because it is not competitive enough. Like Baidu, Coccoc has lots of malwares installed for some reason to collect users’ information, including sensitive personal details. Thus, it is usually used only for the purpose of entertainment and the like.

It will be more ridiculous if this bill is made to prevent Google and Facebook as these two are useful channels of “hostile forces” aiming at the regime. Technically, it will be impossible to prevent them if a communication channel is available. It is not difficult for users in Vietnam to spend a little time changing their Internet addresses and move to servers registered in another country, not to mention that Facebook and Google are preparing to supply globally free WiFi and GPS. The prevention, therefore, will only accelerate this move. A similar measure was proved to be groundless a few years ago when Yahoo was prevented owing to free interactive extension on the Web (Yahoo plus). Groups or communities using Google, Facebook have nothing to worry about when expressing their opinions because the Internet technically allows unlimited use despite a little difficulty: the bill bans all online communication means and other online network activities.

In moving toward the future and making history, man’s course of action varies. A regime able to lead the country in accordance with development laws will be remembered for its merits and its great men. Those, for the sake of personal conspiracies, mislead the country and disobey the development laws will be seen as criminals. Sooner or later, they will have to pay a bitter price either for deliberate decisions or for lack of knowledge which result in wrongdoing.