All information stored on, sent over, or
retrieved from the Internet must comply with
Vietnam’s Press Law, Publication Law, and other
laws, including state secrets and intellectual
property protections. 13 All domestic and foreign
individuals and organizations involved in Internet
activity in Vietnam are legally responsible for content created, disseminated, and stored. New
monitoring software issued by the Ministry of
Posts and Telematics in July 2006 requires ISPs
to record the identity and Internet behavior of
users at Internet kiosks, and to store the information on their servers for one year. 14 Relevant legislation and administrative decrees may not be
consistently enforced—such as the requirements
to track IDs and record personal information as a
condition for access in cybercafés that appears
to be largely ignored in cities such as Ho Chi
Minh City and Hanoi. 15 However, they do provide
the state with considerable authority and discretion to control how citizens get online.
Just as ISPs and cybercafés are required to
install monitoring software and store information
on users, all users are also formally deputized to
report content that opposes the state or threatens state security to the relevant authorities. 16 It is
unlawful to use Internet resources or host material that opposes the state; destabilizes Vietnam’s
security, economy, or social order; incites opposition to the state; discloses state secrets;
infringes organizations’ or individuals’ rights; or
interferes with the state’s Domain Name System
(DNS) servers. 17 Those who violate Internet use
rules are subject to a range of penalties, from
fines to criminal liability for offenses such as
causing chaos or “security disorder.” 18 The
National Assembly enacted the Law on
Information Technology on June 22, 2006. 19
Regulatory responsibility for Internet material is divided along subject-matter lines in
Vietnam. While the Ministry of Culture and
Information focuses on sexually explicit, superstitious, or violent content, the Ministry of Public
Security monitors customers who access politically sensitive sites. 20
ONI testing results
Testing was conducted from various access
points (including hotel, cybercafé, and wireless
connections) on two ISPs: FPT and VNPT. VNPT
returns a “blockpage” indicating that the requested site was prohibited; FPT indicates that the filtered site does not exist, suggesting a form of
DNS tampering where the listings for filtered sites
had been removed from its DNS server. Our testing of Vietnam’s Internet filtering found that the
state concentrates its blocking on content about
overseas political opposition, overseas and independent media, human rights, and religious topics. Proxies and circumvention tools, the use of
which is illegal, 21 were the major exception and a
substantial number were inaccessible on both
ISPs.
A large majority of blocked and inaccessible
content was specific to Vietnam—either in the
Vietnamese language or related to Vietnamese
issues, with a significant number of filtered sites
operating out of California. Sites only in English
or French, or from the global list, were rarely
blocked. For example, the domain for Radio Free
Asia (www.rfa.org) was blocked only on FPT,
although RFA’s Vietnamese-language home
page (www.rfa.org/vietnamese) was blocked by
both ISPs. At the same time, however, sites only
tangentially or indirectly critical of the government, such as content focusing on local communities (www.nguoidan.net; www.vietnamdaily.
com) or world news aggregation (www.thongluan.
org; www.danchimviet.com/php/index.php) were
also blocked, along with sites voicing strong anticommunist sentiments (www.conong.com;
www.vietnamvietnam.com). Although a large
number of overseas sites focusing on political
opposition and reform (such as the Free Vietnam
Alliance at www.lmvntd.org) were filtered, the
only human rights Web site on the global list to
be blocked by either (and in this case both) ISP
422
Country Summaries
retrieved from the Internet must comply with
Vietnam’s Press Law, Publication Law, and other
laws, including state secrets and intellectual
property protections. 13 All domestic and foreign
individuals and organizations involved in Internet
activity in Vietnam are legally responsible for content created, disseminated, and stored. New
monitoring software issued by the Ministry of
Posts and Telematics in July 2006 requires ISPs
to record the identity and Internet behavior of
users at Internet kiosks, and to store the information on their servers for one year. 14 Relevant legislation and administrative decrees may not be
consistently enforced—such as the requirements
to track IDs and record personal information as a
condition for access in cybercafés that appears
to be largely ignored in cities such as Ho Chi
Minh City and Hanoi. 15 However, they do provide
the state with considerable authority and discretion to control how citizens get online.
Just as ISPs and cybercafés are required to
install monitoring software and store information
on users, all users are also formally deputized to
report content that opposes the state or threatens state security to the relevant authorities. 16 It is
unlawful to use Internet resources or host material that opposes the state; destabilizes Vietnam’s
security, economy, or social order; incites opposition to the state; discloses state secrets;
infringes organizations’ or individuals’ rights; or
interferes with the state’s Domain Name System
(DNS) servers. 17 Those who violate Internet use
rules are subject to a range of penalties, from
fines to criminal liability for offenses such as
causing chaos or “security disorder.” 18 The
National Assembly enacted the Law on
Information Technology on June 22, 2006. 19
Regulatory responsibility for Internet material is divided along subject-matter lines in
Vietnam. While the Ministry of Culture and
Information focuses on sexually explicit, superstitious, or violent content, the Ministry of Public
Security monitors customers who access politically sensitive sites. 20
ONI testing results
Testing was conducted from various access
points (including hotel, cybercafé, and wireless
connections) on two ISPs: FPT and VNPT. VNPT
returns a “blockpage” indicating that the requested site was prohibited; FPT indicates that the filtered site does not exist, suggesting a form of
DNS tampering where the listings for filtered sites
had been removed from its DNS server. Our testing of Vietnam’s Internet filtering found that the
state concentrates its blocking on content about
overseas political opposition, overseas and independent media, human rights, and religious topics. Proxies and circumvention tools, the use of
which is illegal, 21 were the major exception and a
substantial number were inaccessible on both
ISPs.
A large majority of blocked and inaccessible
content was specific to Vietnam—either in the
Vietnamese language or related to Vietnamese
issues, with a significant number of filtered sites
operating out of California. Sites only in English
or French, or from the global list, were rarely
blocked. For example, the domain for Radio Free
Asia (www.rfa.org) was blocked only on FPT,
although RFA’s Vietnamese-language home
page (www.rfa.org/vietnamese) was blocked by
both ISPs. At the same time, however, sites only
tangentially or indirectly critical of the government, such as content focusing on local communities (www.nguoidan.net; www.vietnamdaily.
com) or world news aggregation (www.thongluan.
org; www.danchimviet.com/php/index.php) were
also blocked, along with sites voicing strong anticommunist sentiments (www.conong.com;
www.vietnamvietnam.com). Although a large
number of overseas sites focusing on political
opposition and reform (such as the Free Vietnam
Alliance at www.lmvntd.org) were filtered, the
only human rights Web site on the global list to
be blocked by either (and in this case both) ISP
422
Country Summaries