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From AFP, Google is concerned about the latest Vietnamese government regulations involving the internet.  New regulations would require internet retailers to install software to track user activities.  Eventually this could lead to specific websites being blocked by the Vietnamese government.

Read more here -> Google troubed by new Internet rules in Vietnam – AFP

I guess I do not want to state the obvious here but for the last 6 years, certain websites in Vietnam have ALREADY been blocked.  Yahoo Geocities sites were blocked in the past; Facebook with FPT and EVN are currently blocked; many human right’s sites are already blocked.  Even my blog is blocked with certain ISPs.  No news here…

Furthermore, the government can already track the online activities of internet users.  To register for an internet line, you either have to present your Vietnamese ID or passport if you are a foreigner.

I am guessing the new regulations are just trying to stop people from using OpenVPN, OpenDNS or Google Public DNS.  That is just a guess of course…

Yesterday the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) released a circular to regulate and enforce blogging rules in Vietnam.

According to Thanh Nien News, the circular states that bloggers will be held responsible for providing, disseminating, and creating direct links that are in direct violation of the decree issued last August that “…forbids the circulation of information which undermines Vietnam’s national security and social order, revealing classified information, or instigating war and violence.”

Pornography, superstitious content such as astrology, and defamatory content are also banned.  These are social evils in Vietnam.

Bloggers cannot create blogs assuming other identities.  That means the Fake Steve Jobs blogger would be in violation in Vietnam.

Furthermore, bloggers cannot post copyrighted material and they will also be held responsible for ALL the content of their blogs.  Service providers (those that host blogs) “…must detect, prevent and get rid of banned information when asked by governmental blog management agencies, it notes” according to Thanh Nien News.

The questions not answered are whether Expat bloggers and Vietnamese who have blog accounts outside of Vietnam are affected.  A report posted by Tuoi Tre today seems to state that if an overseas blog posted by a blogger in Vietnam violates the August decree, they may be held in criminal violation.  I will need to confirm this since I was reading a translated version of the story with Google Translator.

Despite this circular, many bloggers seem not really worried about the regulation of blogs.  There are just too many blogs, especially with Yahoo 360, that will make enforcing the circular too difficult.  Also, since many bloggers are teenagers who have a tendency to speak their mind, restricting this young group could turn into an headache for the MIC.

With the growing popularity of Facebook and Twitter in Vietnam now, will these two service providers, as defined by the circular, be responsible to manage the information on their sites as well?

Read more about the new blog circular here -> Circular aims to tackle blogging violations

Vietnamese version here -> Tuoi Tre

Update:

VietnamNet Bridge just posted an article about the blog circular: Vietnam to have circular on Internet-based information violations

AP published Vietnam imposes new blogging restrictions as well.  As with Reuters, AP seems to be paraphrasing the Vietnamese English language news sites.  No fact finding as well.

Related Posts on the Regulation of Blogs in Vietnam

• Blogging Boom Faces Gov’t Blockages (Helen Clark – IPS News)
• Are Expat Bloggers in Vietnam affected by the Draft Blog Resolution?
• Vietnamese Govt Watchdog to Regulate Blogs

Helen Clark published her article in relation to the new blogging regulation for Vietnam last Friday.  Originally, the blogging regulation was supposed to include all bloggers but has since focused just on bloggers who host blogs within Vietnam.

Anh Hung (Fresco 2.0), Chris Harvey (charvey in Vietnam), and I were interviewed by Helen Clark via telephone.   This will be Anh Hung’s second interview.  Over a week ago, he appeared in Geoffrey Caines’ SFGate article, Bloggers the new rebels in Vietnam.

It will be interesting to see how the law will be implemented next year.  What about blogs not affected by the new Blog Law, will they just be filtered out?  As we have seen with Geocities for many years, the Vietnamese government has the capability to filter out websites.  It will be relatively easy to filter out ‘controversial’ blogs as well.  We will just have to wait and see but as I told two other reporters, I think the Western media are a bigger threat to Vietnam bloggers than the new blog law

Excerpt of Helen Clark’s article:

Though blogging regulations have been discussed before the issue again came to prominence in November, with reports running in local media that the Ministry of Information and Communications was planning a law which would counteract “incorrect information” about Vietnam.

Read more here -> http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45171

or here -> http://www.google.com/search?&q=Blogging+Boom+Faces+Gov%27t+Blockages+Helen+Clark

Oh yeah, one little mistake.  Helen mentioned that I ran Barcamp Saigon.  Actually, I just formed it and helped obtain the venue though my network.  The Barcamp Saigon organizers ran the event.  Want to make sure they get the credit here, not me

Other Press Reports on the Blog Regulation

Edit 1:

Reuters published their report on the blogging regulation.  A bit more negative in tone than Helen Clark’s article.  John Ruwitch seemed to just quote online news sources without checking out the facts.  As I mentioned earlier, nobody seems concerned about the new blog regulation except the Western media.  They are blowing this out of proportion.

Read article here -> Vietnam Bans Submersive Blogs

VietnamNet Bridge just posted a piece on the current draft resolution to regulate ‘harmful’ blogs in Vietnam.  The Vietnamese government has wanted to regulate blogs within Vietnam as an effort to control the number of sites from posting “…incorrect information about religion, political system, state and government of Viet Nam.”

Now it seems that the current draft regulation will be able to prosecute bloggers, including Expats, who reside in Vietnam but host their blogs outside of the country.  When asked how Vietnam can manage blogs overseas, Nguyen Tu Quang responded:

…This is to more complicated. If the violation relates to two countries, police of both sides will work together or through Interpol to investigate the case. If however, the blogger only breaks Vietnamese law but not the laws of the country he/she resides in, there’s little we can do. However, we still can solve this technically. The most important thing is to raise consciousness among internet users. (Source: VietnamNet Bridge)

So even if a blogger who resides in Vietnam did not break the laws of the country where the blog is hosted, they may be prosecuted here in Vietnam.  That is my interpretation at least.

I will be curious to see if the draft resolution will have a clause for Expat bloggers residing in Saigon.

The Vietnamese government announced that it created an agency to act as a watchdog in the regulation of blogs within Vietnam.  With nearly 1.1 million blogs just inside Vietnam, I am curious to see how this agency, known as the Administration Agency for Radio, Television and Electronics Information (AARTE), will be able to regulate the large number of weblogs in this country.  The article mentions that blogs located outside of Vietnam are beyond the current regulation but from past experience, these were the blogs the Vietnamese government wanted to focus on.

Here lies the problem for AARTE.  If Vietnamese Bloggers know the government will not regulate blogs outside of Vietnam, would they not naturally create a blog on Yahoo 360 or Google Blogger?  That’s what all Western Expats do to avoid the laws here in Vietnam.  SaigonNezumi.com is located in the US, in Chicago to be exact.

Thus, if AARTE cannot control blogs outside of Vietnam under the current regulation, will they have the authority to block or filter out blogs they deem unacceptable?  Hard to say but I think this will be a tough task for this agency.

I do agree that web is more open in Vietnam.  Geocities, a banned site a year ago, is now available again.  Geocities contains a large number of anti-Vietnamese government websites.

I am curious to see how this regulation will pan out.  Even though my blog is located outside of Vietnam, will AARTE eventually ask the Saigon Bloggers to license our blogs in this country?  Who knows, lets just wait and see what happens.

Read more here -> http://english.vietnamnet.vn/politics/2008/10/806781/