Internet censorship in Vietnam

[1][4] According to a 2006 report by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University while the government of Vietnam claims to safeguard the country against obscene or sexually explicit content through its blocking efforts, most of its filtering efforts are aimed at blocking sites with politically or religiously sensitive materials that might undermine the Communist Party and the stability of its one-party rule.

Vietnam nominally guarantees freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly through constitutional provisions, but state security laws and other regulations reduce these formal protections in practice.

All domestic and foreign individuals and organizations involved in Internet activity in Vietnam are legally responsible for content created, disseminated, and stored.

Those who violate Internet use rules are subject to a range of penalties, from fines to criminal liability for offenses such as causing chaos or security disorder.

[8][9] In September 2013, Decree 72 came into effect; making it illegal to distribute any materials online that "harms national security” or “opposes" the government, only allows users to "provide or exchange personal information" through blogs and social media outlets—banning the distribution of "general information" or any information from a media outlet (including state-owned outlets), and requires that foreign web companies operate servers domestically if they target users in Vietnam.

[17] In 2013, Associated Press reported that the Ministry of Information and Communications were preparing new rules that would restrict blogs to personal matters.

[citation needed] On May 7th, 2024. the digital game distribution platform Steam was blocked by most major Vietnamese ISPs, with many users reports an inability to access the storefront.

Speculations on the reasoning behind the block was due to government officials "finding solutions to prevent cross-border services from reaching Vietnamese users" on grounds of "releasing games without permissions".

A sign above a computer monitor in an Internet cafe reminding patrons that they are forbidden from accessing sites with " reactionary " or "depraved" content
A list of regulations posted at an Internet cafe north of Saigon , among the listed rules are those forbidding patrons from accessing sites with subversive or pornographic content.