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Vietnam's Force 47 is run by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to hack anti-government websites and spread pro-government messages online, and is believed to be at least 10,000-strong.
Anh Chi, the pen name of 46-year-old Nguyen Chi Tuyen, knows the ministry's tactics well. He has created videos criticising Force 47, and has expressed concern about the impact of a new cyber-law that came into effect at the beginning of the month.
The deadly January 9 incident in Dong Tam is a case in point.
According to the authorities, three police officers and 84-year-old village leader Le Dinh Kinh were killed after local residents clashed with police in the early hours of that day.
The dispute, over agricultural land next to a military airport, shocked the country. But afterwards, Vietnam's cyber-army, also known as Force 47, was deployed to counter the content on social media platforms deemed critical of the way the authorities handled the situation.
"Facebook is the main source of independent news now in Vietnam," said Trinh Huu Long, a co-founder of Legal Initiatives for Vietnam.
"The government has been working with Facebook to try to control content posted by dissidents and independent voices," he added.
Vietnam is said to be following China's lead in policing its citizens speech online. Is this going to become the global norm?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 18 2020, @05:08AM (1 child)
Hmmmm.... you say,
>After all, what is the point of criticizing the US when someone else does wrong? (particularly a much worse wrong!) How does that help fix the wrongdoing? Are we only supposed to fix the wrongs of the world once the US is perfect?
GP you are responding to, said,
>>For the binary thinkers reading this, no what Vietnam is doing is not OK because the US does the equivalent. Both are shitty, and a sign that the rulers and their policies lack the legitimacy they claim.
Do you notice your reading comprehension fail?
(Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Saturday January 18 2020, @05:56AM
Nope and you didn't either. Let us keep in mind that this story wouldn't exist in the first place, if what was said or written was always true.
Here, I see this as a typical attempt to defuse counterargument by anticipating it. And aside from paying lip service via the above claim what really do they do to support that claim? A feeble argument equating serious wrongdoing and speech suppression on Vietnam's part with some lightweight publicity on the US military's side. Perhaps, they believe what they wrote above, but the previous words don't match that.