By Michael E. Sanchez
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
HANOI, Vietnam– Vietnamese officials have denied allegations about the intentionally censoring of Facebook, the social networking site. The state owned internet service provider FTP announced that there are negotiations with foreign companies to solve existing faults in the network to ensure access to Facebook’s US servers.
Many of the one million users in Vietnam have been reporting problems for days in accessing the recently launched Vietnamese –language version of Facebook. In addition, employees at web-management firms have said that the government ordered them to block access to the social networking site. It remains unclear the nature of the malfunctions.
Facebook is a global social networking site where users can manage their personal profiles by adding videos, pictures, and other friends. Facebook is also renowned for the social groups, and forums of political nature where the users express their views in various issues.
Vietnamese authorities have requested internet users to restrict the online publishing of personal concerns, and political views. Many bloggers and online journalists have been arrested in the last few months.
Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights assures the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This right also includes the ability of individuals to express their personal opinions without interference, and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any means that the individuals wish.
This incident of internet censorship is not new to the country. Vietnam strictly regulates internet access through legal and technological means. The government says that their major concern is the flow of obscene and sexually explicit material. However, according to Sr. Emily Nguyen, a resident of Vietnam, “most of the filtered sites contain politically or religiously sensitive materials that have been observed as undermining the Communist Party’s hold on power, while porn site can be accessed unrestrictedly.”
Earlier in the year, after Asia News published a story about persecution Catholic in the country, popular Catholic English-language sites were also blocked.
Other sites which have been blacklisted include websites for groups such as Human Rights Watch, Writers Without Borders, Amnesty International and other human rights groups.
For more information, please see:
Catholic News Agency- Vietnamese Government Expands Internet Censorship to Block Catholic Websites– 6 August 2009
Rocket News- Vietnam Denies Blocking Facebook – 20 November 2009
BBC News- Vietnam Government Denies Blocking Networking Site – 20 November 2009
United Nations- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
