Hanoi follows Beijing in cyber rules

November 27, 2024

SEOUL – Vietnam has positioned itself in recent years as an attractive destination for Big Tech companies looking to move away from China. But Hanoi’s policies regarding social media have increasingly been following Beijing’s lead.

The Southeast Asian nation is now ramping up already tight controls over online platforms with new rules that will require companies to verify the identities of users and share this information with authorities when asked.

If these sorts of digital regulations sound familiar, it may be because they echo a Big Brother-esque cyber identification scheme unveiled by Beijing earlier this year. The Chinese Communist Party’s rollout was met with international backlash over fears of government overreach, further surveillance and the erosion of free speech.

It’s not the first time Hanoi has imitated Beijing when it comes to cyber regulation. Still, Vietnam’s tech industry has spent years cashing in on the idea of not being its giant northern neighbor. Foreign investment has surged as firms capitalized on “China Plus One” strategies to diversify supply chains away from Chinese manufacturing. Vietnam has welcomed production from tech titans including Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. But the latest crackdown on digital anonymity is a timely reminder that its single-party government still has a lot in common with the CCP.

Over the years, internet freedoms in Vietnam have been severely beaten back. The blow has been especially painful because there was a time when platforms like Facebook and YouTube gave a mouthpiece for people to disseminate information when traditional media outlets were forced to toe the party line. And while many were banned in China, they