Vietnam steps up online crackdown, jailed activists at record
high: Amnesty
Reuters | November 30, 2020
HANOI
(Reuters) - The number of political prisoners in Vietnam has reached its highest
on record, according to a tally by Amnesty International, which in a report on
Tuesday accused Facebook and Google of censorship in the Southeast Asian
country.
There are at
least 170 “prisoners of conscience” in Vietnam, the report said, of which around
70 are currently serving jail terms for online activism, mainly on Facebook and
Google’s YouTube.
“Once the
great hope for the expansion of freedom of expression in the country, social
media platforms are fast becoming human rights–free zones, where any peaceful
dissent or criticism of the Vietnamese government is liable to be censored,” the
report said.
The current
number of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam is the highest that London-based
Amnesty has reported since it began publishing the figures in 1996, an Amnesty
spokesman told Reuters.
Amnesty
defines prisoners of conscience as people who have not used or advocated
violence, but were imprisoned because of their identity or beliefs.
Vietnam’s
foreign ministry, which handles enquires from foreign media, did not respond to
a request for comment.
Despite
sweeping economic reform and openness to social change, Vietnam’s ruling
Communist Party retains tight control on media, tolerates little opposition and
has intensified a crackdown on dissidents and online activists ahead of a key
Party meeting next year.
Earlier this
month, Reuters reported that Vietnam had threatened to shut down Facebook
locally if it did not agree to censor more political content. Vietnam’s
government said at the time that Facebook should abide by local laws.
Amnesty’s
report said the U.S. social media giants do not do enough to resist government
pressure to censor posts. It cited interviews with Vietnamese activists who said
their posts had been censored.
Both
Facebook and Google have said that they only restrict access to content if it
violates local laws. One such law, Article 117, prohibits Vietnamese citizens
from “making, storing or spreading” anti-state materials.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |