Vietnam cyber law set for tough enforcement despite Google, Facebook pleas
Exclusive: Vietnam cyber law set for tough enforcement
despite Google, Facebook pleas
By Mai Nguyen OCTOBER 10, 2018 / 5:04 AM
HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam is preparing to strictly
enforce a new cybersecurity law requiring global technology companies to set up
local offices and store data locally despite pleas from Facebook, Google and
other firms, a government document showed.
Vietnamese lawmakers approved the new law in June
overriding strong objections from the business community, rights groups and
Western governments including the United States, who said the measure would
undermine economic development, digital innovation and further stifle political
dissent.
Alphabet Inc’s Google, Facebook and other big technology
companies had hoped a draft decree on how the law would be implemented would
soften provisions they find most objectionable.
But the document seen by Reuters indicates those hopes
are unlikely to materialize, potentially setting up a showdown over whether the
companies will ultimately comply with the law or pull out of the country.
Vietnam’s foreign ministry, which handles foreign media
requests for comments from the government, did not immediately reply to a
request for comment. Facebook declined to comment. A Google spokesman had no
immediate comment.
Despite sweeping economic reforms and increasing openness
to social change, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party retains tight media
censorship and does not tolerate political dissent.
The new draft decree requires companies providing a range
of services, including email, social media, video, messaging, banking and
e-commerce, to set up offices in Vietnam if they collect, analyze or process
personal user data.
The companies would also be required to store a wide
range of user data, ranging from financial records and biometric data to
information on peoples’ ethnicity and political views, or strengths and
interests inside Vietnam’s border.
Facebook and Google, both of which are widely used in the
country, do not have local offices or local data storage facilities and have
pushed back on the localization requirements.
The companies have been more muted on other parts of the
law that bolster the government’s online policing powers, though company
officials have privately expressed concerns that the new law would make it
easier for the authorities to seize customer data and expose local employees to
arrest.
CASE STUDY
A number of other countries in Asia and elsewhere are
also pursuing data localization laws as they seek greater control over the internet.
Vietnam offers a case study in the conflicting pressures
the likes of Facebook and Google confront when operating in countries with
repressive governments. It also shows how authoritarian regimes try to walk a
line in controlling online information and suppressing political activism
without crippling the digital economy.
Critics fear the new law will both dampen the burgeoning
internet economy and intensify a crackdown on online dissent. Vietnam has been
increasingly aggressive in prosecuting dissidents for anti-government Facebook
posts, and activists have called on the company to do more to resist the
government’s censorship.
The draft decree also gives the Vietnamese police’s
cybersecurity and high-tech crime unit authority to request data for
investigation or to handle law violations on cyberspace or for national
security protection.
The head of the National Assembly’s defense and security
committee, Vo Trong Viet, said in June that storing data inside Vietnam was
feasible, crucial to fighting cyber crime and in line with international rules.
He has said placing data centers in Vietnam, which the
companies say would increase costs and weaken security, is necessary to meet
the cybersecurity needs of the country.
The draft decree is expected to be published within days
to seek public opinion. Once it is approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc,
the law will go into effect on January 1 next year, though the provisions on
local offices and data localization would not go into effect for another year.
Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Additional reporting by Jonathan
Weber in Singapore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
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