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Vietnam PM says impossible to ban social media

Urges officials to embrace websites like Facebook to spread the government's message
Vietnam PM says impossible to ban social media

Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is urging government officials to use social media to engage with the population more (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)

Published: January 16, 2015 04:40 AM GMT
Updated: April 21, 2015 07:33 PM GMT

Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has conceded it is impossible for the communist country to ban social media, urging officials instead to embrace websites like Facebook to spread the government's message.

Sites such as Facebook have at times been difficult to access in Vietnam, an authoritarian country that routinely imprisons bloggers and dissidents for criticizing the regime.

"You here have all joined social networks, you've all got Facebook up on your phones to read information. So we must make this information correct," Dung told senior officials Thursday, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported.

"We cannot ban it," he said at the meeting in Hanoi.

Over the last few years, Vietnam has had one of the fastest rates of Facebook uptake in the world, and now around a third of the country's population of 90 million have an account on the social network.

The government has always denied blocking the site, and for at least a year Facebook has been easily accessible in Vietnam without a VPN or other measures.

Dung said top officials need to use social media to engage with the population more.

"We must publish accurate information online immediately... Whatever is being said online, people will believe official information from the government," he said.

Vietnam's communist party controls all newspapers and television networks, and many citizens prefer to get their news online from blogs or social media, which contain less propaganda.

But the quality of the blogs and social media postings is uneven. Some dissident-run sites offer nuanced reporting on sensitive political topics, other online commentators spread sensational rumors.

Last week, in a rare move, authorities denied widespread rumors that a popular senior communist party official Nguyen Ba Thanh, a former top official in central Danang City, had been poisoned with radioactive material by a political rival.

"Incorrect information creates social distraction," Dung said, adding that the government would ask ministries to address incorrect information circulating online.

In the past, Dung has driven through bans on particular blogs, but the move has usually backfired, triggering a surge of interest in the prohibited sites.

The harassment, arrest and prosecution of online activists remain widespread in Vietnam, which is holding scores of bloggers in jail, according to watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

The one-party state is regularly denounced by rights groups and Western governments for its intolerance of political dissent. AFP

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