Vietnam has accused Facebook of violating its new cybersecurity law by allowing users to post 'slanderous' and 'anti-government' content.
According to Viet Nam News, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) is also accusing the company of breaking the law on online advertising and underpaying taxes in the country.
It cited a report from market research company ANTS that concluded $235 million was spent on advertising on Facebook in Vietnam last year, but that Facebook was not paying the apporopriate amount of tax.
MIC says that Facebook has been too slow to take down the offending content, and also objects to the fact that the company refused to hand over information on offending accounts. Facebook did, indeed, report 12 data requests from Vietnam in the first half of last year, but granted only two.
The new law came into effect on January 1, and - like so many 'cybersecurity' laws - has far more to do with censorship than actual cybersecurity.
It requires foreign companies such as Google and Facebook to set up data centers and offices within Vietnam, on the grounds that this protects user data: a reasonable security strategy.
However, it also requires the platforms to remove offending content within 24 hours. And that content includes propaganda against the state, as well as any ‘incorrect’ material that could disrupt public order or ‘create difficulties’ for government officials.
Facebook isn't directly commenting on the reports, beyond repeating its policy on content removal. That is, it says, to comply with local law. In China, whose own 'cybersecurity' laws have formed a model for Vietnam's, Facebook is banned altogether.
"The law puts tech companies in a position of conducting surveillance on its users at the request of the government without any protections or safeguards," Lucy Purdon, policy officer at Privacy International, told me last summer.
"We would expect to see tech companies pushing back on many of the requirements in the law, as it undermines their own international responsibility to uphold human rights."
There's a chance that economic pressures will lead to a lighter touch in enforcement as things settle down.
"Besides privacy issues, the new law will also affect the investment climate, discouraging foreign companies from investing in Vietnam, and interrupt Vietnam’s digital innovation potential," says Marty P. Kamden, CMO at NordVPN.
Indeed, the Vietnam Digital Communications Association has estimated that the law could reduce GDP growth by 1.7% and cut foreign investment by 3.1% - something that the country can ill afford.
