Amnesty International, Action to End Facebook’s Censorship in Vietnam, April 2020
Featured Image: Dinh Thi Thu Thuy– one of the several people arrested so far in 2020 for exercising her right to freedom of expression– during her arrest, Source: Facebook Dinh Van Hai. The local police claimed that she was storing anti-government materials at her home, though they did not find any evidence. She is charged under Article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code for “conducting propaganda against the state.”
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Take action this week with Amnesty International and call for Facebook to overturn its decision to censor posts that the Vietnamese government deems to be “anti-state.” The news that Facebook agreed to censor posts in exchange for access to Vietnamese servers comes at a time when the Vietnamese government is questioning citizens over their online posts about COVID-19 and also as it continues to harass and arrest activists with dissenting views in a crackdown that has only escalated in recent years. AI says that Facebook’s decision will have negative effects for Vietnamese citizens and activists and will also affect international freedom of expression by providing a dangerous model of state censorship for others to follow. “Facebook must base its content regulation on international human rights standards for freedom of expression, not on the arbitrary whims of a rights-abusing government. Facebook has a responsibility to respect freedom of expression by refusing to cooperate with these indefensible takedown requests,” says William Nee, Business and Human Rights Advisor at Amnesty International. Take action by sharing AI’s release, here.
