Geneva Summit on Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy

Share on facebook
Share on google
Share on twitter
Share on whatsapp
Share on email
Share on print
Share on facebook
Share on google
Share on twitter
Share on whatsapp
Share on email
Share on print

Digital Activism in Vietnam
By Duy Hoang, spokesman of Viet Tan

Geneva Summit on Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy
March 8-9, 2010

***

JPEG - 14.2 kb

It is a pleasure to attend the Geneva Summit with so many dedicated human rights and democracy activists from around the world. I would like to share with you the power of digital activism to foster political change in Vietnam.

To understand the revolutionary impact that the internet is having on the country, consider these three statistics:

- Internet use has grown rapidly in the last decade. There are about 25 million people in Vietnam online today. That is up from just 200,000 ten years ago.

- Over half of Vietnam’s population is under the age of 30. Like young people everywhere, this new generation of Vietnamese wants a better life, is less willing to accept the status quo and is relatively tech savvy.

- All media in Vietnam is state run. The ruling Communist Party controls all the TV, radio and newspapers in the country. There is no independent media.

Given the above, the internet has huge potential for opening up a closed political system. We see the blogosphere in Vietnam as a de facto free media; social networks as the new town square where people can freely assemble; and digital activism as a cutting edge means of nonviolent struggle.

Within the last couple of years, Vietnamese have taken advantage of the web to learn about and engage in topics that are deemed politically sensitive by the regime. Issues that have motivated internet activists are:

- Official corruption: Bloggers often expose the corruption cases that the official media is unwilling or unable to report. These efforts can be very creative.

The “Nó Kìa club” invites people to upload pictures of the lavish homes of government and party officials. <http://clbnokia.wordpress.com/>

Another watchdog group uses a photo-sharing site to document fraud perpetuated by senior officials. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/47624590@N04/>

- Repression of peaceful dissent: When the Vietnamese authorities brutally attacked democracy activist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy and then charged her with physical assault, bloggers exposed the fact that she was framed. They showed that a picture published in state newspapers of the man Ms. Thuy was alleged to have attacked was a fake. <http://www.viettan.org/spip.php?article9068>

- Environmental threats: In 2009, a grassroots movement coalesced in opposition to bauxite mining in Vietnam’s ecologically sensitive Central Highlands. Using the internet, organizers gathered thousands of signatures and created a website that received nearly 20 million views. Equally important, bloggers moved the protest offline by organizing a t-shirt campaign drawing attention to the environmental and security dangers of the government’s bauxite policy.

- Vietnamese sovereignty: Territorial disputes with China and the perceived weakness of the Hanoi regime in handling the problem has been a hot button issue. In December 2007, students and bloggers organized the first ever demonstrations outside Chinese diplomatic offices. In early 2008, they protested against the Beijing Olympics as the torch relay came through Vietnam.

JPEG - 35.8 kb

Response from the regime

Authorities in Vietnam know they cannot shut off the internet entirely. Foreign investors would pull out en masse. So the government has resorted to various forms of repression, censorship and sabotage to curtail internet freedom. Many of these measures, including arrests of bloggers and firewalls against politically sensitive web sites, have been documented by international human rights groups.

I would like to briefly mention two new developments.

The first is the block of Facebook in Vietnam. Around August 2009, the Ministry of Public Security issued an order for internet service providers (ISPs) in Vietnam to restrict access to this popular social networking site. In November, the ISPs begin implementing the order. Interestingly, neither the government nor the ISPs would confirm on the record that they were blocking Facebook. When Vietnamese Facebook users complained of outages, some ISPs claimed that there were technical problems with the system. However, Facebook issued a statement that it was not aware of any technical glitches with the network.

We can conclude that neither the government nor the ISPs wanted to risk public outcry from shutting down Facebook—which has over a million users in Vietnam including successful expats and many children of the ruling elite. Instead, the authorities hoped to kill off Facebook through a slow death as users got fed up with unexplained outages. What authorities probably did not expect is that some ISPs are reportedly maintaining Facebook access for so-called high value clients and many internet users in Vietnam are learning how to circumvent the Facebook restrictions.

The good news from the Facebook incident is that even an authoritarian regime like Hanoi has to consider public reaction to its policies—and these policies don’t necessarily achieve the intended objectives of authorities.

The second major development recently is the wave of orchestrated hacker attacks against websites critical of the regime hosted on servers outside of Vietnam. These web pages include discussion forums widely popular with internet users from Vietnam like X-Cafe, websites of pro-democracy groups such as Viet Tan and the Bauxite Vietnam page that is the main voice of the environmental movement.

Going beyond firewalls against politically sensitive websites, Hanoi authorities are now resorting to cyber terrorism. By attacking sites based outside of the country, the regime is not only denying the internet freedom of Vietnamese residents, they are also restricting the access of netizens around the world. The implications of these cyber attacks are still unfolding.

JPEG - 29.8 kb

So what can we do?

The key to digital activism is an open internet. Viet Tan has launched a campaign for internet freedom in Vietnam. Here are three efforts we are pursuing which we invite your support.

1/ Advocating for internet freedom: This is a human rights issue. As a signatory to many human rights conventions, the Hanoi regime must abide by its international obligations. Pressure to respect international law is particularly important this year as Vietnam chairs ASEAN and serves on the UN security council.

Another important stakeholder are the technology companies. Companies that provide internet services or network infrastructure should be reminded of their corporate social responsibility not to aid and abet authoritarian governments to censor free information.

2/ Supporting a circumvention movement: We are empowering Vietnamese internet users through training opportunities and disseminating knowledge on web security and circumvention. Overcoming government restrictions on freedom of information is a 21st century act of principled, civil disobedience.

3/ Demanding freedom for imprisoned bloggers: Since October 2009, the Vietnamese government has convicted 17 democracy activists, many of whom are dedicated writers and internet activists. We must put and end to arbitrary arrests and detentions such as these through nonstop advocacy from within the country and from the international community.

I’ve discussed the potential of digital activism in Vietnam and some ways to ensure the internet access that is so important to this activism. I look forward to your questions and ideas. Thank you.

Share on facebook
Share on google
Share on twitter
Share on whatsapp
Share on email
Share on print

LATEST ARTICLES

Capitol Hill Briefing to Mark 50 Years of Paracel Islands Under Chinese Occupation

Vietnamese pro-democracy organization, Viet Tan, in collaboration with bipartisan Members of Congress will be hosting a briefing marking 50 years of China’s invasion and occupation of Vietnam’s Paracel Islands.  The event will be on Thursday, January 18, 2024 from 3:00-4:30 P.M. in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2060.