The discussion of how much control a government should have over internet content is a recurring one in light of the rising tide of fake news on social media platforms. The government in Vietnam is stepping up its oversight of the internet.
According to sources cited by Reuters, the nation is creating new regulations to regulate the kinds of social media accounts that are permitted to convey news inside the nation. According to Reuters, the decision stems from the government’s concerns about users mistaking social media accounts for official news outlets. While citizens may want the government to remove genuinely misleading information, the risk of increased regulatory oversight is a loss of people’s freedom. Vietnam already has one of the most restrictive internet governance regimes in the world, with the pro-democracy nonprofit Freedom House assigning it a “internet freedom score” of 22 out of 100. This places it below Russia (30/100) and Saudi Arabia (24/100) in terms of internet freedom.
