Management, provision, and use of internet
service and online information in Vietnam are basically regulated by among
other legal documents, Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP on management, provision, and
use of internet service and online information issued by the Government on 15
July 2013 (“Decree 72”).
Below are the summary of some main content in
Decree 72:
Firstly, Decree 72 provides detailed
regulations on online game business which are viewed to loosen the obstacles in
online game business during last few years. Decree 72 classifies the video
games into 04 different methods of service provision (i.e. Video games that
have interaction among multiple players via the game server; Video games that
only have interaction between the players and the game server; Video games that
have interaction among multiple players without interaction between players and
the game server; Video games that are downloaded from the Internet without the
interaction among players and between players and the game server) and provides
the requirement for establishment of online gaming service center.
Secondly, Decree 72 provides detailed
regulations on domain name registration and especially the basis for settling
disputes over domain name at request of both the plaintiff and the defendant.
Thirdly, Decree 72 regulates the provision of
public information across the border. Accordingly, the foreign organizations,
enterprises, and individuals that provide public information across the border,
which is accessed by Vietnamese people or from people in Vietnam, must comply
with Vietnam’s law.
Under this Decree 72, public information is
defined as online information of an organization or individual that is publicly
provided without identifications or addresses of receivers However, this
regulation is pending for further guidance from the Ministry of Information and
Communication.
Moreover, Decree 72 provides a controversial
article 20.4 which may cause misunderstanding: “Private websites are websites
established by individuals or via social networks to provide and exchange
private information. Those websites neither represent other organizations and
individuals nor provide compiled information”. And it is explained that with
that provision in Decree 72, the Government is aimed only at protecting
copyright when the most popular Vietnamese news sites are satisfied with
copying and pasting content and just writing “From so-and-so” as a footnote at
the bottom of an article.
However, it is concerned that Decree 72 is limiting
people’s inclination to share news. There are the more obvious implications on
individuals. After all, Decree 72 does not exactly state how authorities plan
to monitor online activity for individual infringers who post news on social
sites, nor does it say how they will be punished for infringement.
Decree 72 also requires the internet service provision companies and
other providers of information to internet users in Vietnam to cooperate with
the Government in enforcing the prohibition of a range of vaguely-defined acts
of expression.
According to Article 5 of Decree 72, the “prohibited acts” include “abusing
the provisions and use of the internet and information on the web” to “oppose
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”, “undermine the grand unity of the
people”, “damage the prestige of organizations and the honour and
dignity of individuals”, “undermine the fine customs and traditions
of the nation” and Article 25 requires the filtering of any
information on the Internet based on the interpretation that such information
is amongst the “prohibited acts” outlined in Article 5.
The social network service provider has the
obligation to provide private information of the users related to terrorism,
crimes, and violations of law at the request of competent authorities.