Vietnam to require registration of social media, even on international platforms

Vietnam’s deputy minister of data and communications has indicated the nation would require all social media accounts to be registered – even these held on platforms run exterior Vietnam however used throughout the nation.

As reported by nationwide broadcaster Voice of Vietnam (VOV), the federal government will introduce a requirement for registration in an effort to scale back criminals’ entry to social media.

The requirement will fall on native and offshore companies, and deputy minister Nguyen Thanh Lam stated nameless accounts held on Fb, TikTok, and YouTube can be “challenged, blocked, and dealt with at completely different ranges.”

Vietnam already requires verification of identities for customers of SIM playing cards – a measure launched to scale back spam TXTs.

Extending registration necessities to social media is being touted because the SIM registration drive has led some criminals to undertake over-the-top companies to run their scams.

Nguyen didn’t point out how he intends to have non-Vietnamese companies register customers – particularly customers from exterior the nation. He pledged that forthcoming draft laws would clarify how the federal government intends to make this occur.

If carried out, Vietnam wouldn’t be alone in requiring registration of social media accounts. China does it and, like China, Vietnam is a single-party Communist state.

Vietnam is, nevertheless, moderately extra open than China. World social networks are simply accessible, which isn’t the case in China. Certainly, when your correspondent just lately visited Vietnam I discovered WhatsApp was totally ubiquitous – no less than amongst tourism service suppliers. (The misplaced baggage desk at Ho Chi Minh Metropolis’s Tan Son Nhat Worldwide Airport was a horrible correspondent by e mail however responded far faster on WhatsApp – however that’s one other story.)

The requirement for common registration will have to be dealt with with care, as there’s potential to make it tougher for residents to make use of companies they depend on.

Massive Tech can be more likely to oppose the requirement to confirm customers. Whereas most tech corporations will regard Vietnam’s younger and rising inhabitants of 100 million souls as an essential development market, the likes of Fb and TikTok have a tendency to not get pleasure from being requested to collect details about customers for governments to make use of – they’d moderately use it themselves. ®