6-10-2023 (HANOI) Major social media platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook, have reportedly removed close to 800 posts deemed “anti-state” or “false” in Vietnam within a month’s span, following requests from the country’s communist government, according to state media sources on Friday (Oct 6).
Between mid-August and mid-September, approximately 380 YouTube videos, 364 Facebook posts, and 33 TikTok links were either taken down or blocked, as disclosed by the state-controlled Thanh Nien newspaper, citing the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).
These removed posts were found to contain “false and negative… content against the party, state, organizations, and individuals, defaming leaders,” as reported.
Vietnam’s communist government strictly adheres to one-party rule and enforces social media restrictions to suppress freedom of expression. The country’s media landscape is entirely under state control, and individuals critical of the government with significant online followings are often targeted.
In a recent development, the MIC unveiled the results of its investigation into TikTok, a Chinese-owned video-sharing app with an estimated 50 million users in Vietnam. Earlier this year, the MIC had initiated an inquiry into the presence of “toxic content” on the platform.
The MIC criticized TikTok’s content censorship process as inefficient, allowing content that violated Vietnamese laws to persist. The ministry called on the app to take more robust measures to protect children’s privacy, insisting on the removal of all accounts belonging to users under the age of 13.
Although TikTok’s official policy stipulates that users must be at least 13 years old to create an account, the MIC found that children below this age limit still accessed the platform.
Furthermore, the ministry urged Vietnamese authorities to closely monitor the “cross-border service activities” of TikTok Singapore, suggesting its involvement in managing the app’s operations in Vietnam.
As of now, TikTok, Meta (Facebook’s parent company), and Google (owner of YouTube) have not provided any immediate response to requests for comments on the matter.
In 2020, Amnesty International issued a significant report warning that Facebook and Google were increasingly becoming “human rights-free zones” in Vietnam. The report accused these tech giants of facilitating the censorship of peaceful dissent and political expression in the country.
