Vietnam Moves To Counter "Cyber-Dissidents" On The Web
from the protest-goes-online,-arrests-still-in-real-life dept
As the internet makes it even easier to get your protest ideas out to the public, it also makes it easier for governments to track you down and try to stop you. Or at least that appears to be what's happening in Vietnam, where they've arrested a long-time activist for uploading some material to a US-based website. Of course, there's been a history in Vietnam of arresting any protestors using the online route (the article mentions a few others), so this shouldn't be a huge surprise. This is the country, after all, that has said everyone who uploads a website needs to first register it with the government. The article also mentions that soon after the "registration" announcement, the government also announced that 2003 was going to be the "year of e-business". It shows just how out of touch they are with reality if they believe that it can be the year of "e-business", while forcing everyone to register every piece of content and while arresting anyone who they disagree with.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Gorbachev Syndrome
[ link to this | view in chronology ]