Vietnam Internet restrictions come into effect
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
My hypocrisy-meter just broke.
Economists prefer percentages to absolutes, and trends to isolated incidents. 9/11 has not only halted the long trend towards increasing freedom, but began a new and troubling trend of growing tyranny.
Perhaps the U.S. isn't overtly attacking press freedom, but the U.K. is, informs the U.S. before every incident, and the U.S. couldn't be happier.
Meanwhile, we (Americans) have more people living in cages than North Korea, China, Iran, and Vietnam combined. Most of them citizens, incarcerated after being subjected to extremely dubious trials for crimes related to drugs -- and whoops, look at today's latest headline: Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove Eclipsing N.S.A.’s
Relatively free states slide morph into corrupt police states precisely when the people sipping coffee with their luxury computers refuse to notice it happening.
That's... at least mildly pretentious. What social ills are the brave bands of roving latté-sippers going to save the country from next? Anyways, history has shown that despots don't have to care about what the intelligentsia thinks.
Obviously, despots don't care what the intelligentsia or anybody else with < despot power thinks. But in a high-functioning democracy, it is only through the apathy or willful ignorance (or freaky racism / nationalism) of the citizenry that you get despots in the first place. We're not there yet, but are obviously on that path.
I assume you're caucasian and rarely have your luxury car searched at traffic stops, or your electronic devices searched at border crossings? Me too. Yay for us.
And also like any good cliché, says more than it really says. For instance, that there is no permissible reason for government to go after anyone since it logically follows that if we let government go after Party A, they are that much closer to going after Party B.
For that reason, instead of living my life by clichés, I try to evaluate each situation on its own merits.
> I assume you're caucasian and rarely have your luxury car searched at traffic stops, or your electronic devices searched at border crossings?
Caucasian, yes.
'Luxury' car, no. Unless the MP3 player is a luxury nowadays. It doesn't get searched at traffic stops, but that is probably because I've not run across a traffic checkpoint in years.
Maybe I should go visit the despotic America though, so that I can find out what a traffic stop is like? Where would I find that, as I've been all over the East Coast and have had no success yet in finding it.
There needs to be rules, but they need to be sensible and not limit speech. The other side of that coin though is the laws against copyrighted material, most people don't care and download stuff illegally anyway.
I can't imagine lawmakers backing away from the Internet, and I don't really want them to because before you know it someone would be monetising child porn. No idea how you would even begin to solve the problem of balance though.
Not just the edges. I've seen porn sites self censor obvious fictional porn depicting children, because of concern over hosting child porn.
Then its DNS takedown time. Either by making sure that resolvers will lie, or removing it from the Internet on a US "because we say so" basis. No judge, no jury, no trial. Those stuff is only for "real" things, not virtual "sites" on the Internet.
Ofcourse, make sure that the certificate you get is actually from a non-vietnam authority. I think you can enforce this by running chrome.
The decree, known as Decree 72, says blogs and social websites should not be used to share news articles, but only personal information.
The law also requires foreign internet companies to keep their local servers inside Vietnam.
It has been criticised by internet companies and human rights groups, as well as the US government.
Vietnam is a one-party communist state and the authorities maintain a tight grip on the media.
Dozens of activists, including bloggers, have been convicted for anti-state activity in the country this year.
The new law specifies that social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook should only be used "to provide and exchange personal information".
It also prohibits the online publication of material that "opposes" the Vietnamese government or "harms national security".
Last month the US embassy in Hanoi said it was "deeply concerned by the decree's provisions", arguing that "fundamental freedoms apply online just as they do offline".
Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based group that campaigns for press freedom worldwide, has said the decree will leave Vietnamese people "permanently deprived of the independent and outspoken information that normally circulates in blogs and forums".
The Asia Internet Coalition, an industry group that represents companies including Google and Facebook, said the move would "stifle innovation and discourage businesses from operating in Vietnam".
I use unblock-us.com for my home network.
Honestly, I don't see how they plan on enforcing this except for having a look see at already well known dissident bloggers.
And, frankly, I think this 9X generation, which seems to be drowning in unprecedented narcissim will flip this whole place on its head when they get a bit older. Vietnam will be an even more interesting place than it is now when that comes to pass.
It's a good point about the 9Xers. I don't know how politically aware or motivated they are, but I do know that, like the rest of us, they want free access to information and communication. Even if it is just to send instagrams of their bun cha.
First, the 9X kids, as I mentioned before, want what the rest of the world already has. They've had a taste and I don't think they are willing to concede.
Second, a lot of Viet Kieu (Vietnamese from abroad) are returning and they have a lot of money. They're going to also want to maintain some semblance of what they've grown accustomed to in Canada, US and Australia. If there is anything I've learned from living here, money can buy almost everything.
The rest of SE Asia is growing at a faster rate. Vietnam is only really beating Indonesia.
I think what most people don't get is that communism here doesn't mean what you probably think it does. Capitalism is huge here and it's only going to get bigger. So, one or the other is going to have to give.
Finally, this decree is kind of toothless. They have neither the money or the knowledge on implementing it. Their idea of blocking facebook was (Facebook is generally available anywhere now) to block some DNS entries.
>classical music
What?
Most people who have that freedom do not feel insecure.
Most people who have the freedom to critique their government feel insecure at the idea of having that ability limited in any way.
It would be interesting to hear the argument, why is this law a good thing for the Vietnamese people?