Facebook Users in Vietnam Blocked

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Creative Commons License photo credit: Silence 000033
Creative Commons License photo credit: Silence 000033
Creative Commons License photo credit: Silence I’ve been visiting, living/working in, and following news from Vietnam since I graduated from school in 2000 (You can read more about this on my LinkedIn profile). So you can imagine how awful it is to hear that the Vietnamese government may have blocked Facebook.
Rumors about a blockage first surfaced a few months ago on Facebook (ironically), but were quickly squashed. An alleged government document was identified as fake.
For the past couple of weeks, my friends have been reporting Facebook outages. Updates on Facebook and Twitter began as casual complaints but quickly grew into serious allegations of censorship.
The news hit the mainstream press today. Long-time Vietnam reporter, Ben Stocking, has the report on the Associated Press.
As of today, a few friends are still able to access Facebook. And most have found ways around the blockage, by using a proxy server or Facebook Lite. Though, my friends tend to be more tech savvy than the average Vietnamese, so I wonder how these interruptions have affected most of the 1 million Facebook users in the country.
It’s alarming to see that Vietnam may be following China, which blocked Facebook and Twitter earlier this year.  It’s also surprising – the state-controlled media has been more openly critical of the government in recent years, and Vietnam is generally seen as more progressive than China.
As more young Vietnamese engage with online tools that facilitate and scale communication, collaboration, and community-building, the old guard of a Communist regime has reasons to be nervous.
The irony is that President Obama is in China now, and publicly criticized China for its censorship (news of which is of course censored in China). At the same time, a delegation from Vietnam visited San Francisco yesterday to promote cross-border business and goodwill.
Unfortunately, while Vietnam wants to lower barriers for trade and commerce, it prefers the opposite with free speech.
Stay up to date on the blockage by following the Twitter stream.

Vietnam teens standing at school gate
Creative Commons License photo credit: Silence

I’ve been visiting, living/working in, and following news from Vietnam since I graduated from school in 2000 (You can read more about this on my LinkedIn profile). So you can imagine how awful it is to hear that the Vietnamese government may have blocked Facebook.

Rumors about a blockage first surfaced a few months ago on Facebook (ironically), but were quickly squashed. An alleged government document was identified as fake.

For the past couple of weeks, my friends have been reporting Facebook outages. Updates on Facebook and Twitter began as casual complaints but quickly grew into serious allegations of censorship. The news hit the mainstream press today. Long-time Vietnam reporter, Ben Stocking, has the Associated Press report.

As of today, a few friends are still able to access Facebook. And most have found ways around the blockage, by using a proxy server or Facebook Lite. Though my friends tend to be more tech savvy than the average Vietnamese, so I don’t know how these interruptions affect most of the 1 million Facebook users in the country.

It’s alarming to see that Vietnam may be following China, which blocked Facebook and Twitter earlier this year.  It’s also surprising – the state-controlled media has been more openly critical of the government in recent years, and Vietnam is generally seen as more progressive than China.

As more young Vietnamese engage with online tools that facilitate and scale communication, collaboration, and community-building, the old guard of a Communist regime has reasons to be nervous.

The irony is that President Obama is in China now, and publicly criticized China for its censorship (news of which is of course censored in China). At the same time, a delegation from Vietnam visited San Francisco yesterday to promote cross-border business and goodwill.

Unfortunately, while Vietnam wants to lower barriers for trade and commerce, it prefers the opposite with free speech.

Stay up to date on Facebook interruptions in Vietnam by following this Twitter stream.

Update: Here’s a really great post about the block from Huy Zing.