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It's an interesting progression - 5 years ago the Vietnamese government was trying to block Facebook (it was pretty easy to get around). Then they gave up on th

It's an interesting progression - 5 years ago the Vietnamese government was trying to block Facebook (it was pretty easy to get around). Then they gave up on that and allowed everyone on Facebook, and now they are more concerned with dissent so I guess they are going to patrol social media. It's interesting that they have not decided to return to their previous policy of blocking Facebook. They have some pretty strange policies here. I lived in Dalat, Vietnam for two years and went to an "illegal" Vietnamese language class. A teacher needs to have a license from Hanoi to teach Vietnamese to foreigners. And since it's apparently impossible to get a license, we were studying Vietnamese illegally. Eventually, the local police got wind of it and broke the class up. So all of the foreigners living here are essentially forbidden from learning how to communicate with the locals effectively. It's very bizarre.

cageface 9y ago
There are universities in Saigon that offer Vietnamese language classes for foreigners so it's definitely not forbidden. As is usually the case in Vietnam, the law depends a lot on when it's interpreted and who is doing the interpreting.
- santoriv 9y ago
  It's true that it's not forbidden in Saigon, but it is essentially forbidden in Dalat. I don't know about other towns in Vietnam as I can only speak to my experience.
  - taoistextremist 9y ago
    Is it possible this could be more about controlling dialects and ensuring only the prestige one gets taught to foreigners? Thus (in theory, though unlikely having an effect in practice) forcing people to speak the prestige dialect to do business even with foreigners willing to learn the language.
adventured 9y ago
The US has gotten a lot closer to Vietnam in terms of trade relations over the last 5 to 10 years. The US now regards Vietnam as a strategic interest to be aggressively developed. The US will import about $50 billion worth of goods from Vietnam in 2017. That's up from $10 billion a decade ago. That's equal to 25% of Vietnam's entire GDP. It's also almost entirely one way, it's about as pure of a trade deficit as they get, so Vietnam is being doused with USD capital the same way China was in the early days of its growth boom. That's going to get a lot more dramatic yet, as the US wants some other large partners to work with in the region. For Vietnam's part, they seem perfectly happy to take the trade & capital inflow and put it to use rapidly expanding their economy.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Vietnam is a fairly large country (90 million people) that has a lot of potential. They are also next in line for decelopkent, and China antagonizes them enough to put them in the USA’s sphere of influence. Besides, China isn’t interesting in importing the goods Vietnam manufactures.
- amgin3 9y ago
  Japan, China, and Korea are all heavily investing in Vietnam as well. In HCMC, Japan is building the first of nine rapid transit metro lines in the city, and in Hanoi China is doing the same.
ashleyn 9y ago
Somewhere along the line, they realised that deploying a bunch of KGB-style bots on Facebook was a hell of a lot more effective at controlling people than simply banning it. When dissent results in a crushing flood of mean-spirited trolls, who needs censorship?
- ihsw2 9y ago
  You cannot remove ideas from the mind but you can flood it with so much misinformation that the ideas are basically destroyed. Effectively, people will "block Facebook" from themselves through self-censorship or completely writing off Facebook as a "poisoned well."
  - zipwitch 9y ago
    Are you implying this would be a bad thing? While I think the internet provides amazing and revolutionary communications options to the human race, Facebook is quite clearly not among them.
    - jryle70 9y ago
      Yes. It's the bad thing. Who is to decide whether FB is bad? If you want to fight disinformation on FB, then fight it. But discriminate against using FB is the not the way.
      - ravitation 9y ago
        Each individual would choose for themselves whether FB is bad... That's why he said self-censorship. Is there a better alternative when fighting disinformation isn't an option that an individual can (or would) realistically choose?
- kbenson 9y ago
  Hey, if you can't beat them, join them (for values of join that include paying their startlingly effective mercenary army more money to switch sides and work for you instead).
kingkawn 9y ago
My brother (we are from the US) has lived in vietnam for a long time. Taking Vietnamese language classes is easy and common-place for foreigners.
zipwitch 9y ago
Why would they want to block a service that will do a ton of intelligence gathering for them, for free?
amgin3 9y ago
This is BS. I lived in Vietnam for years, there are plenty of language schools where foreigners can go to learn Vietnamese. I've never heard of anyone needing a license to teach Vietnamese. There are even volunteer groups in HCMC for teaching foreigners Vietnamese, all done in the open with no teaching certifications.
uxorious 9y ago
Any idea what their reasoning is?
antisthenes 9y ago
Facebook just became better at marketing their "engagement/consensus/echochamber as a service" to governments.

cageface 9y ago

There are universities in Saigon that offer Vietnamese language classes for foreigners so it's definitely not forbidden. As is usually the case in Vietnam, the law depends a lot on when it's interpreted and who is doing the interpreting.

santoriv 9y ago
It's true that it's not forbidden in Saigon, but it is essentially forbidden in Dalat. I don't know about other towns in Vietnam as I can only speak to my experience.
- taoistextremist 9y ago
  Is it possible this could be more about controlling dialects and ensuring only the prestige one gets taught to foreigners? Thus (in theory, though unlikely having an effect in practice) forcing people to speak the prestige dialect to do business even with foreigners willing to learn the language.

adventured 9y ago

The US has gotten a lot closer to Vietnam in terms of trade relations over the last 5 to 10 years. The US now regards Vietnam as a strategic interest to be aggressively developed. The US will import about $50 billion worth of goods from Vietnam in 2017. That's up from $10 billion a decade ago. That's equal to 25% of Vietnam's entire GDP. It's also almost entirely one way, it's about as pure of a trade deficit as they get, so Vietnam is being doused with USD capital the same way China was in the early days of its growth boom. That's going to get a lot more dramatic yet, as the US wants some other large partners to work with in the region. For Vietnam's part, they seem perfectly happy to take the trade & capital inflow and put it to use rapidly expanding their economy.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Vietnam is a fairly large country (90 million people) that has a lot of potential. They are also next in line for decelopkent, and China antagonizes them enough to put them in the USA’s sphere of influence. Besides, China isn’t interesting in importing the goods Vietnam manufactures.
amgin3 9y ago
Japan, China, and Korea are all heavily investing in Vietnam as well. In HCMC, Japan is building the first of nine rapid transit metro lines in the city, and in Hanoi China is doing the same.

ashleyn 9y ago

Somewhere along the line, they realised that deploying a bunch of KGB-style bots on Facebook was a hell of a lot more effective at controlling people than simply banning it. When dissent results in a crushing flood of mean-spirited trolls, who needs censorship?

ihsw2 9y ago
You cannot remove ideas from the mind but you can flood it with so much misinformation that the ideas are basically destroyed. Effectively, people will "block Facebook" from themselves through self-censorship or completely writing off Facebook as a "poisoned well."
- zipwitch 9y ago
  Are you implying this would be a bad thing? While I think the internet provides amazing and revolutionary communications options to the human race, Facebook is quite clearly not among them.
  - jryle70 9y ago
    Yes. It's the bad thing. Who is to decide whether FB is bad? If you want to fight disinformation on FB, then fight it. But discriminate against using FB is the not the way.
    - ravitation 9y ago
      Each individual would choose for themselves whether FB is bad... That's why he said self-censorship. Is there a better alternative when fighting disinformation isn't an option that an individual can (or would) realistically choose?
kbenson 9y ago
Hey, if you can't beat them, join them (for values of join that include paying their startlingly effective mercenary army more money to switch sides and work for you instead).

kingkawn 9y ago

My brother (we are from the US) has lived in vietnam for a long time. Taking Vietnamese language classes is easy and common-place for foreigners.

zipwitch 9y ago

Why would they want to block a service that will do a ton of intelligence gathering for them, for free?

amgin3 9y ago

This is BS. I lived in Vietnam for years, there are plenty of language schools where foreigners can go to learn Vietnamese. I've never heard of anyone needing a license to teach Vietnamese. There are even volunteer groups in HCMC for teaching foreigners Vietnamese, all done in the open with no teaching certifications.

uxorious 9y ago

Any idea what their reasoning is?

antisthenes 9y ago

Facebook just became better at marketing their "engagement/consensus/echochamber as a service" to governments.