Exclusive: Vietnam threatens to shut down Facebook over censorship requests -
source
By Reuters | November 20, 2020 HANOI,
VIETNAM - Vietnam has threatened to shut down Facebook in the country if it does
not bow to government pressure to censor more local political content on its
platform, a senior official at the U.S. social media giant told Reuters. Facebook
complied with a government request in April to significantly increase its
censorship of "anti-state" posts for local users, but Vietnam asked the company
again in August to step up its restrictions of critical posts, the official
said. "We made
an agreement in April. Facebook has upheld our end of the agreement, and we
expected the government of Vietnam to do the same," said the official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the subject. "They
have come back to us and sought to get us to increase the volume of content that
we're restricting in Vietnam. We've told them no. That request came with some
threats about what might happen if we didn't." The
official said the threats included shutting down Facebook altogether in Vietnam,
a major market for the social media company where it earns revenue of nearly $1
billion, according to two sources familiar with the numbers. Facebook
has faced mounting pressure from governments over its content policies,
including threats of new regulations and fines. But it has avoided a ban in all
but the few places where it has never been allowed to operate, such as China. In
Vietnam, despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social
change, the ruling Communist Party retains tight control of media and tolerates
little opposition. The country ranks fifth from bottom in a global ranking of
press freedom compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Vietnam's
foreign ministry said in response to questions from Reuters that Facebook should
abide by local laws and cease "spreading information that violates traditional
Vietnamese customs and infringes upon state interests." A
spokeswoman for Facebook said it had faced additional pressure from Vietnam to
censor more content in recent months. In its
biannual transparency report released on Friday, Facebook said it had restricted
access to 834 items in Vietnam in the first six months of this year, following
requests from the government of Vietnam to remove anti-state content.
‘Clear responsibility’ Facebook,
which serves about 60 million users in Vietnam as the main platform for both
e-commerce and expressions of political dissent is under constant government
scrutiny. Reuters
exclusively reported in April that Facebook's local servers in Vietnam were
taken offline early this year until it complied with the government's demands. Facebook
has long faced criticism from rights group for being too compliant with
government censorship requests. "However,
we will do everything we can to ensure that our services remain available so
people can continue to express themselves," the spokesperson said. Vietnam
has tried to launch home-grown social media networks to compete with Facebook,
but none has reached any meaningful level of popularity. The Facebook official
said the company had not seen an exodus of Vietnamese users to the local
platforms. The
official said Facebook had been subject to a "14-month-long negative media
campaign" in state-controlled Vietnamese press before arriving at the current
impasse. Asked
about Vietnam's threat to shut down Facebook, rights group Amnesty International
said the fact it had not yet been banned after defying the Vietnamese
government's threats showed that the company could do more to resist Hanoi's
demands. "Facebook
has a clear responsibility to respect human rights wherever they operate in the
world and Vietnam is no exception," Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty's deputy regional
director for campaigns, said. "Facebook are prioritizing profits in Vietnam, and
failing to respect human rights."
Vietnam Human Rights Network |