Viet Nam: Human Rights Violations in Cyberspace

University students sit at an internet cafe surfing the web and sending e-mail in Hanoi, Saturday Jan. 4, 2003. ©Associated Press

Internet laws in Viet Nam do not safeguard the right to freedom of expression, allowing the authorities to monitor the activities of political dissidents and to track their electronic footsteps. Government opponents risk long prison sentences on national security grounds, simply for expressing their peaceful political views via the Internet. As a result, the rights to freedom of expression, information and peaceful assembly are even more compromised in cyberspace than in the real world.

Since its launch in December 1997, the Internet in Viet Nam has provided a new medium for government opponents to express their opinions. They have used it to exchange e-mails with contacts in the Vietnamese Diaspora, posting messages on web-based Internet forums. A number of people have posted political articles on the Internet. But there is little protection in the Internet’s legal framework, which allows for government monitoring of information flows and control of content. There are no rights to privacy and the relative ease with which political dissidents can be traced in cyberspace means that people expressing dissent in Viet Nam run an even higher risk of being arrested than before the launch of the Internet.

A crackdown on dissent by the government in the last two years has led to the arrest of at least 10 people charged with offenses linked to the sharing of perceived anti-government information on the Internet. Six have been tried and sentenced already while the others are detained and awaiting trial. Officially, they have not been arrested and charged with a violation of the Internet laws, despite the fact that those laws offer ample opportunities, but under national security clauses of the Criminal Code. It appears that the authorities are keen to avoid prosecutions under Internet legislation so as to promote its use for business purposes and to avoid international criticism. Instead the authorities rely on loosely-worded catch-all provisions in national security legislation which has long been of concern to Amnesty International.

The Internet has become increasingly popular in Viet Nam, especially for business purposes. More and more young people are “chatting” on the Internet, exchanging e-mails and surfing the World Wide Web in the 4,000 - 5,000 Internet cafes. By August 2003, the number of Internet users was estimated to be approaching 2.5 million. But as seen in the case stories outlined below, while the Internet provides a new and exciting means of exchanging views and information, it is also being used by the government as a tool of repression.

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