Vietnam Orders Internet Use Monitoring

Jun 8, 1:14 PM (ET)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnam has ordered local governments nationwide to closely monitor Internet use and enforce regulations aimed at cracking down on "bad information" sent or read on the Web, an official said Tuesday.

The move comes after the communist country sentenced several dissidents to long prison terms over the past two years for using the Internet to criticize the government and promote democracy.

The Ministry of Culture and Information last week instructed the People's Committees in all 64 city and provincial governments to closely monitor all online information, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Under the new regulations, part of government policy announced in March, Internet cafe owners can be fined or jailed for allowing clients to download or send "bad information" on the Internet, the official said.

That includes allowing access to sites ranging from those deemed pornographic to those accused of disseminating state secrets.

Internet cafe owners must also document what Web sites their clients visit and for how long, and all users must present identification cards before logging on.

There are an estimated 5,000 Internet cafes in Vietnam. About 4 million people out of Vietnam's population of 81 million regularly use the Internet.


THANK GOD we are in America and not Vietnam...we would be sooo up the proverbial "shits creek" without a paddle!! (thanks to All Forums! :)) Just imagine what it would be like to live in such a country.

Originally posted by saycricket
Vietnam Orders Internet Use Monitoring

Jun 8, 1:14 PM (ET)

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnam has ordered local governments nationwide to closely monitor Internet use and enforce regulations aimed at cracking down on "bad information" sent or read on the Web, an official said Tuesday.

The move comes after the communist country sentenced several dissidents to long prison terms over the past two years for using the Internet to criticize the government and promote democracy.

The Ministry of Culture and Information last week instructed the People's Committees in all 64 city and provincial governments to closely monitor all online information, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Under the new regulations, part of government policy announced in March, Internet cafe owners can be fined or jailed for allowing clients to download or send "bad information" on the Internet, the official said.

That includes allowing access to sites ranging from those deemed pornographic to those accused of disseminating state secrets.

Internet cafe owners must also document what Web sites their clients visit and for how long, and all users must present identification cards before logging on.

There are an estimated 5,000 Internet cafes in Vietnam. About 4 million people out of Vietnam's population of 81 million regularly use the Internet.


THANK GOD we are in America and not Vietnam...we would be sooo up the proverbial "shits creek" without a paddle!! (thanks to All Forums! :)) Just imagine what it would be like to live in such a country. man o man you are not kidding SAY....we'd all be facing the firing squad right about now.......god bless america

Good post saycricket,
A reminder of our freedoms we sometimes take for granted.
We post our opinions without worry of consequences.
My hat is off to those in suppressed countries that take chances of personal loss of freedom or worse to speak out against those that would wrong their fellow countrymen.
Many here would remain silent, that are now so boisterous.

I wouldn't feel too comfortable about our freedoms on the internet. In the state of Washington if they catch you gambling online you can be arrested; some poor person was sentenced to two years in prison.

Also in this same state they decided to crack down on smokers buying cigarettes online to save money. They tracked down the companies selling them, confiscated their records and now these poor smokers are going to be receiving what I can only imagine will be a huge bill from the state of Washington. And they had the nerve to call it tax evasion! That's no more tax evasion than crossing the border into Idaho to buy liquor and smokes or going into Portland to buy a prom dress. What's next L.L. Bean?

There is no privacy on the internet. How that came to pass I have no idea. They have laws against tapping phones, why not the internet? It's about time something is done about it before we become the next Vietnam!

remember thr patriot act people. are every act could be being monitered by the governemnt, and we will never know.

I'm grateful that we are in America and have the freedom to degrade or even applaud our government whether it's online, on the street or in the newspaper. It's a freedom that many do not have at all.

Originally posted by seawater
I wouldn't feel too comfortable about our freedoms on the internet. In the state of Washington if they catch you gambling online you can be arrested; some poor person was sentenced to two years in prison.

Also in this same state they decided to crack down on smokers buying cigarettes online to save money. They tracked down the companies selling them, confiscated their records and now these poor smokers are going to be receiving what I can only imagine will be a huge bill from the state of Washington. And they had the nerve to call it tax evasion! That's no more tax evasion than crossing the border into Idaho to buy liquor and smokes or going into Portland to buy a prom dress. What's next L.L. Bean?

There is no privacy on the internet. How that came to pass I have no idea. They have laws against tapping phones, why not the internet? It's about time something is done about it before we become the next Vietnam!
Ok, here is where I will pull a little right again. To use the internet to skate around state laws does allow the state to prosecute and rightly so I believe.
As for the cigarettes if you drove across the stateline with them you can also be arrested, it is to protect their tax base on the smokes, with this I disagree but I also see their point. I smoke and think that the taxes on smokes is unfair.

In France too we are lucky to be able to use the Internet as we want. For example, if I want to write that Chirac is a XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
message supprimé par le bureau de la censure
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Isn't it great ?