New Vietnam Decree Says Blogs And Social Media Must Contain Only Personal Information, Not News Reports
from the content-free-content dept
Around the world, we have been watching the gradual taming of social media, especially in countries where governments keep mainstream media on a tight leash. But even against that background, this news from the Bangkok Post about Vietnam's latest moves to censor online content is pretty extraordinary:
"Personal electronic sites are only allowed to put news owned by that person, and are not allowed to 'quote', 'gather' or summarise information from press organisations or government websites," local media quoted Hoang Vinh Bao, director of the Broadcasting and Electronic Information Department at the Ministry of Information and Communications, as saying.
That's even more extreme than China's approach, which may take down troublesome material as soon as it is put up, but at least allows the possibility of putting it up in the first place. Vietnam's rules mean that online news can only be carried by "official" channels, which are closely regulated. For everyone else, it seems, the Internet must by law become the realm of entirely content-free narcissism -- and pictures of cats.
The ban was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on July 15, communicated to Vietnamese press late Wednesday, and was due to come into force on Sept 1.
It also bans individuals from providing "general information" on their profiles or blogs.
In response, the US Embassy in Vietnam has released a statement expressing its "concerns" about this move:
Fundamental freedoms apply online just as they do offline. 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.
Who says Americans don't do irony?
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Filed Under: blogs, free speech, independent journalism, journalism, news, social media, vietnam
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I do have to wonder though, is this just a general move towards a dictatorship, or is the Vietnamese government planning something soon that they Very much don't want 'uncontrolled' reporting on?
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Now that’s censorship.
Love, Techdirt’s commenter community
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Yet
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...yet.
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The hypocrisy of the U.S. government is really defying all logic and the United Nations should place embargoes around the United States until they start recognizing the privacy rights as guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution and the United Nations commission on human rights.
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No problem!
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Inspiring creativity
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What balls
To say this in the face of PRISM, xKeystroke, and whatever other yet-to-be-released niceties from the Snowden documents?
Is there a contest somewhere to be the most hypocritical asshole government on the planet?
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The US has become the laughing stock of the globe for it's unbridled hypocrisy. One one hand supporting human rights while on the other hand doing just the opposite at home.
China originally justified setting up its Great Firewall of China by stating they needed it for copyright issues.
I keep wondering how long we have before this nation gets its own Great Firewall and how long we have left before encryption, VPNs, and Proxies, are outlawed. I also wonder how long we have before thought crimes are made a criminal act.
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Special 404 or something? :)
I can't believe the US Government is expressing "concerns" over this... they should support this bold and courageous stance against this widespread copyright infringement!
[/sarcasm]
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Social workers, who managed to complete the state licensing process, are able to demonstrate a commitment to upholding the professional codes of conduct in their field.Usually states regulate 4 main categories of social workers that include:
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