Vietnam 'Unfriends' Facebook

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMEMBASSY HANOI 000909 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/11/25 TAGS: EINT ETTC PHUM KPAO VM CH SUBJECT: Vietnam 'Unfriends' Facebook CLASSIFIED BY: Michael W. Michalak, Ambassador, Department of State; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Following weeks of speculation that the Government of Vietnam was considering blocking the popular social networking site Facebook, Internet users' worst fears began to materialize in mid November. The blockage began at first with only a few Internet service providers in certain regions of Vietnam but then spread to all parts of the country. The motives and forces behind the blockage are widely debated in international media; within Vietnam, commentary on the blockage has been limited to chat rooms and blogs. Despite the somewhat spotty fashion in which the Facebook ban was implemented, the GVN is likely responsible for issuing the order to shut down Facebook and thus provides another example of a general tightening of control over information in the country. The Ambassador will raise the ban with the Ministry of Information and Communication and at the upcoming Consultative Group Meeting and ICT Dialogue. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) Twenty five percent of Vietnamese use the Internet. Only nine percent have home access, but Internet cafes and mobile Internet devices allow Vietnam's younger generation to rely heavily on the Internet as a means of communication and business. There are 66 Internet service providers (ISP) in Vietnam funded by a variety of sources, both private (minority) and state-owned (majority), including the Ministry of Defense via its telcom Viettel. The top three ISPs only account for about ten percent of Internet users in Vietnam which is one indicator of the highly fragmented nature of online services in Vietnam (more details on the Internet landscape in Vietnam to be provided septel). ¶3. (SBU) Going back to late summer, rumors were circulating in Vietnam that the GVN was considering blocking popular social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube. In October users began experiencing trouble accessing Facebook, which has in excess of 1.1 million subscribers in Vietnam. The initial explanation that most people accepted was that the GVN was simply experimenting with the technology to block certain websites and that the situation was not permanent. This assumption appeared to be true when days after the blocking began, Facebook magically appeared again albeit only for a few hours. There continue to be reports of intermittent access to the site but access to the site is currently the exception. There is no question that the site is being blocked by the companies who provide Internet services in Vietnam and that the instruction for each of these companies to simultaneously block this site likely came from the central government. Following a story by the Associated Press on November 17 about the plight of Facebook in Vietnam, AFP and other outlets ran stories including quotes from the Minister of Information and Communication who was in the midst of a National Assembly hearing about freedom of information. Minister Le Doan Hop was quoted as saying that the Internet is a place where "harmful and ill willed information is being circulated by forces that are hostile to the state." No government offices responded to media questions about the Facebook issue, but the German Press Agency, DPA quoted officials at FPT and VNPT, two of the larger ISPs in Vietnam, as saying that they had received a government order to block the site. ¶4. (SBU) As word of the Facebook block spread, Embassy contacts were quick to cite the Facebook situation as part of a trend by Vietnam to become more like China (where Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are all blocked) and impose increasingly tighter restrictions on Internet information sources. Against the backdrop of the arrests, firings and police harassment of prominent Vietnamese bloggers over the past year, this view is not surprising. The more difficult question to answer is why Facebook in particular? One explanation is that Facebook, as well as other social networking sites, are commonly used to trade information and discuss topics that the GVN considers illegal or too sensitive. Earlier this year, for example, Vietnam's largest domestic gaming and portal operator, Vinagames, confirmed that it has been required to modify software to prevent users from entering certain banned words or phrases, such as "Spratley Islands," in either Vietnamese or English. Before the modifications, Vietnam's cyber community had been using the chat function built into many online games as a method to discuss topics that would have been censored in Vietnam-based chat rooms. Many prominent bloggers are arguing that the blocking of Facebook was just the first step in what will likely unfold as a much broader effort in coming months. Bloggers fear YouTube (which hosts thousands of videos in Vietnamese on political topics) and Multiply, a social networking and blogging platform that has become increasingly popular since the closure of Yahoo!360 earlier this year, will be the first to go. Several blogs are circulating rumors that the GVN plans to block more sites on December 9. HANOI 00000909 002 OF 002 ¶5. (C) Another possible rationale for the Facebook blockage has more to do with dollars and cents. Facebook generates revenue through traditional online advertisements and increasingly by publishing and charging for online games and other applications. Technical bloggers note that the Facebook blockage limits access to the main Facebook site and the applications function of that site while still allowing a scaled-down version (Facebook lite) to be accessible. If the GVN was intent on blocking Facebook due to concerns that it could be used as a mouthpiece by those opposed to the government, the lite site would also need to be blocked. By blocking the applications on Facebook, the GVN has opened the door for homegrown competitor sites such as zing.com (also owned and operated by Vinagames) which are also looking to capture precious revenue streams online and to take market share from Facebook. (Comment: While this theory cannot be dismissed entirely, it appears implausible, particularly because Vinagames is a purely private business venture that does not have particularly close ties to the GVN. In HCMC, where most Vietnamese social networking, gaming and portal sites are headquartered, company owners uniformly report a somewhat tense relationship with the GVN. End Comment.) ¶6. (SBU) Tech-savvy Vietnamese youngsters have a number of ways to circumvent the ISP's restrictions on Facebook, all of which have been widely published on the Internet and have been circulated feverishly as of late throughout Vietnam. But even if the work-around to access Facebook only adds thirty seconds or a few extra mouse clicks, this is light years for most young people looking to get online as fast as possible. In the opinion of one Vietnamese blogger, any work-arounds that may currently be in use to access Facebook are not likely to be viable in the longer-term. Facebook users in Vietnam may go elsewhere to fulfill their social networking needs as there are still plenty of local alternatives to choose from. Denial of access to a social networking site for even a few weeks could be the death sentence for that site. Other bloggers dispute this analysis and are defiant in their advocacy of using work-arounds to overcome GVN interference. ¶7. (C) COMMENT: The GVN's desire to more tightly control the Internet has been becoming more evident over the past few years. Toward the end of 2007, the Ministry of Communication issued a decree effectively banning all discussion of politics, economics or anything online that could be loosely defined as "news." In 2007 and 2008, numerous prominent bloggers have been either arrested or fired from their jobs while others have been warned that they were in danger of prosecution if they did not stop their blogging. While blocking Facebook appears more as part of a trend than a unique development, the decision to block one of the world's -- and Vietnam's -- favorite websites represents a qualitatively new step in the GVN's efforts to control the Internet. The Ambassador plans to protest the blocking with the Minister of Information and Communication and at the upcoming Consultative Group meetings and ICT Dialogue. END COMMENT. ¶8. (U) This report was coordinated with AmConGen Ho Chi Minh City. Michalak