Vietnam Orders Social Media Companies to Provide User Identities

  • Foreign companies must verify identifies of Vietnam users
  • New rules increase government control of social media
Unlike China, Vietnam doesn’t block websites such as Facebook.Photographer: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images
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Vietnam is ordering foreign social media platforms to verify the accounts of users and provide their identifies to authorities on demand, a move to tighten the Communist government’s control of social networks.

Foreign social media platforms with an average of 100,000 or more visits a month must abide by the new rules, according to a new decree issued Nov. 9. It goes into effect Dec. 25. Foreign companies providing cross-border information services to Vietnam will have 90 days to comply, Dan Tri news website reported.