Vietnam is a country where sadly, internet restrictions prevail. Most of the reasoning behind this stems from the the ideology of the country’s leaders. Nevertheless, with Vietnam in the process of growth, the rapidly developing nature of the country also opened up a lot of space for internet usage. Social media sites are becoming very popular, and the government makes numerous efforts to regulate things the way they see fit, both legally and in practice. Therefore, despite the great technological and general improvements in the country, Vietnam is not necessarily the best place to connect to. As a testament to this, the Reporters Without Borders Association has kept the country on their “Enemies of the Internet” list since 2006.
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From the perspective of the internet, Vietnam’s rapid developments support mobile devices next to computer based internet usage. The former gained ground in unison with the rise of social media. Today the government does not ban websites like Facebook or Google+, so there is some advantage in using it both for them, and those in power. Regardless, the government’s own social media site – Go.vt – remains unpopular. However, essentially every other area of Vietnamese online content is more securely guarded – though Facebook and its counterparts are also monitored, for example. In our opinion, we do not recommend connecting to the internet with a Vietnamese IP address, as a lot of foreign content is simply not available. If you are interested in finding out more about the country, the best you can hope for is general information. Most political and non-communist ideological content is suppressed.
It is important emphasizing here that the Vietnamese government treats the nature of the internet as both a question of public security and as a medium of “inappropriate” foreign cultural material. Furthermore, online discussion of the day’s politics is also forbidden by law. Vietnam’s Decree 72 is the responsible document, and Time writes that as a result the government “effectively prohibits Vietnamese bloggers and users of social-networking sites from discussing current affairs.” Furthermore, strict laws regulate journalism, from the press to publication and even political documents. From a legal standpoint, Vietnam is very far away from a “free” state.
It should not come as a surprise then that the country is highly selective when it comes to online material. Any type of content – from a comment to articles and books – that differ from the government’s communist ideology is banned. Thus, even being critical of those in power can get a resident in trouble. Internet cafés and blogs are actively monitored. Information about human rights is censored. However, most of the websites blocked are local ones. Information about proxy usage and circumventing online restrictions is also restricted. Overall, the situation is next to dire in the country, despite support for social media sites, for example.
Vietnam does not have the best streaming availability. Most internationally operating companies are not present. However, there are numerous local ones, especially in music broadcasting. In fact, the country’s biggest name is NhacCuaThui (NCT), a state funded company. Apart from them, you can also listen to tunes on Apple Music and Guevra. Online film is more disappointing; Netflix ignores south and East Asia altogether, so Vietnam is not included. In this case as well, the best you can do is activate your VPN service when in Vietnam to get access to your favorite streaming services and channels.
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