Vietnam Will Close Facebook If It Doesn't Censor More Local Political Content

Facebook is currently in trouble since Vietnam is threatening the social media giant. The country said that it will shut down Facebook if it will not censor more political content or posts.

Vietnam currently wants the social media platform to adhere to government pressure to censor more local political content on its platform. A senior official at the United States social media giant confirmed that country's request.

Last April, Facebook increased its censorship of "anti-slate posts for local users in compliance with the Vietnam government's wish. However, in August, the country asked the tech giant once again to enhance its restrictions on critical posts.

"We made an agreement in April. Facebook has upheld our end of the agreement, and we expected the government of Vietnam to do the same," said the U.S. official, who requested to be anonymous, via Reuters.

"They have come back to us and sought to get us to increase the volume of content that we're restricting in Vietnam," he added.

Facebook says no to Vietnam's request

The anonymous U.S. official said that they declined Vietnam's request to censor more political posts. He added that the request includes some threats that the country is telling Facebook if the platform will not comply.

As of the moment, this could be a bad news for Facebook if Vietnam really shut it down. Why? Because the country is a major market for the giant social media company, where it earns revenue of almost $1 billion.

Facebook accused by Reporters Without Borders

Previously, Facebook was accused also in Vietnam by Reporters Without Borders because of critical posts censorship. According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), Trung Khoa Le, a Vietnamese journalist, contacted the social media company after four of his posts were blocked in the country.

The press freedom group accused the tech giant of blocking posts containing links to German media articles critical of the government. The blocked news are about the involvement of the Vietnamese interior minister in drug smuggling. Another article that was blocked revealed that a group of hackers in Vietnam spied on government critics in Germany.

As of the moment, Facebook is really in a bad situation in Vietnam. There's no telling what will happen next if the social media doesn't adhere to the country's request.

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Written by: Giuliano de Leon.