Vietnam tightens grip on Internet
A climate of fear exists in Vietnam as the government clamps down on political activists -- many of them in the Bay Area -- who use the Internet to challenge the country's one-party system, according to a new report by Amnesty International.
The Internet crackdown comes at a time when some political openness is actually occurring in the country, said T. Kumar, Amnesty International's advocacy director for Asia and the Pacific. The government's actions toward Internet activists is a ``paranoid'' reaction to online dissenters, particularly overseas Vietnamese, he said.
``In recent months, the Vietnamese government has been strengthening its crackdown,'' Kumar said. ``They are closing down Internet cafes they suspect may not be complying with their regulations. Cafes have a responsibility to inform on their customers.''
One group the government has been leery of is Bay Area-based People's Action Party of Vietnam, which opposes Vietnam's one-party system.
``The Internet opened up Vietnam,'' said Nguyen Si Binh, chairman of the group. Binh, a Palo Alto resident, was jailed for 14 months in 1992 when he returned to Vietnam to organize his political party there. ``The Internet is one of our strongest tools to democratize Vietnam.''
Binh's group has members inside and outside Vietnam, and the Internet has become a powerful tool for recruitment and spreading dissent, he said.
Cong Thanh Do is another Bay Area pro-democracy activist who uses the Internet to communicate with like-minded people inside Vietnam. Do, who lives in San Jose and published his views under a pseudonym on the Web, was jailed for more than a month this summer on vague terrorism changes after he went to Vietnam to meet with followers he had met via e-mail.
The Vietnamese government says it filters the Internet to guard society against socially objectionable topics, such as pornography. But a recent study by the OpenNet Initiative, a Harvard University-sponsored effort to monitor Internet filtering, found the only material being blocked related to politics, religion and human rights.
The campaign to silence Internet opposition is fueling extensive self-censorship, Amnesty International reported. OpenNet, for instance, was unable to recruit Vietnamese for a study because of the government intimidation, Amnesty International said.
The increased scrutiny of Internet usage comes at a time the communist government is promoting technology, which it views as vital to economic development and global competition.
Internet cafes have become popular in a country where few can afford to have their own PCs or pay for Internet connections. Thousands of young people pack cafes every evening for online chatting as well as Internet-based phone services, known as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).
But the growth of Internet cafes and online users, who could represent as much as 20 percent of the nation's 83 million residents, is also seen as a potential threat by the government, Amnesty International said.
Inside Vietnam, open rebellion against the party line is relatively rare, Kumar said. The government has recently shown some signs of openness by allowing investigations into corruption among high-ranking officials to become public, as well as actual criticism of the party line by legislators on some issues, he said.
Vietnam, though, like China, is taking a hard line when it comes to unauthorized political discourse online, Kumar said.
``That is worrying to us,'' he said.
Fear is a deterrent for many to voice political opinion online, and serves as a censoring mechanism, Binh said.
``It's always dangerous'' to go against the regime, he said.
But he said the Internet makes it much more difficult for governments to control the flow of information.
``They can oppose our efforts on the Internet, but they can't stop all of it,'' he said. ``They can't go back now. It's impossible.''
By John Boudreau - Mercury News - October 24, 2006.
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