Like its northern neighbor and historical enemy China, Vietnam is looking to crack down on Internet porn and protest, shutting a reported 65 Internet cafes and kiosks in the former Saigon, after authorities were said to have found hundreds of porn and anti-government Websites on computers there.
City-run Phap Luat reported September 17 that authorities established a special police unit to fight cybercrime and halt distribution of banned material online. The 65 cybercafes and kiosks were closed down over the past two weeks.
This came after Vietnam’s government decided to step up its effort to control Internet use by requiring cybercafe customers to register their identities and force cybercafe owners to monitor the Websites their patrons visit, Phap Luat reported.
Earlier this year, China’s Communist government began ramping up efforts to control what Chinese Netizens see and do in cyberspace, culminating in a midsummer all-out crackdown that has closed hundreds of Websites, produced hundreds of arrests, inspired a government-ordered ban on at least 40,000 search keywords and “other unhealthy content harming national security,” usually a euphemism for sociopolitical censorship in Chinese life.
And, earlier this month, the Chinese government showed it wasn’t kidding about an Internet crackdown, especially on porn. On an order from the government’s Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Protectorate, new regulations took effect September 7 saying that those making and sending porn on the Internet, cell phones, and other devices or operating telephone sex services will face punishment as heavy as life in prison.
