Become a Member for $9.99/month

The police force in Ben Tre Province, Vietnam seemed to have been quite busy in the last few months, going after people’s postings on Facebook.

In January 2019, their Domestic Security Bureau took a university student in and questioned him over his Facebook’s usage, including whether he had joined a group calls “Liking BBC Vietnamese” (Thích BBC Tiếng Việt) – which the police classified as “politically hostile.”

On February 13, 2019, Vietnamnet newspaper reported that Ben Tre provincial police conducted an investigation and interrogated a 35-year-old man, Phan Chi Toan, about his Facebook’s activities under the username “Phan Rio.”

Police alleged that the Facebook account calls Phan Rio was conducting “subversion against the people’s government.” How did he do it according to the authorities?

He did so by joining numerous groups, allegedly “politically hostile” towards the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) and the State, posting, sharing, and commenting on contents that incited demonstrations, as well as propagating to defame the policies, guidelines, and directions of the VCP and the government.

The police had not formally charged Toan with a crime but did declare that they would proceed with the case according to the regular procedures.

The same Vietnamnet’s article further mentioned that the People’s Committee of Mo Cay Bac District, also in Ben Tre Province, had fined a 55-year-old man – Dang Tri Thuc – under Government’s Decree 174/2013/ND-CP , Article 64, Section 4, for using his Facebook account to incite public demonstration in December 2018.

Accordingly, Thuc, a driver, was accused of using the live-stream feature on Facebook to make video clips, calling on others to protest on a few major road intersections on December 22 and 28. He allegedly admitted guilt, confessed and promised he would not repeat the offense, so the authorities fined him with 15M VND or approximately 650 USD.

Decree 174/2013/ND-CP, Article 64: Violations against regulations on websites/ news websites

Section 4 . A fine ranging from VND 30,000,000 to VND 50,000,000 shall be imposed for any of the following violations:

a) Propagating information against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; sabotaging the bloc of great national unity at a degree of severity which is still not liable to criminal prosecutions;

b) Propagating information with the aims of inciting war of aggression, causing hatred between ethnic groups or people of countries, inciting violence or propagating reactionary thought at a degree of severity which is still not liable to criminal prosecutions;

c) Distorting history, denying the revolutionary achievements or offending the nation, people or national heroes at a degree of severity which is still not liable to criminal prosecutions.

While the right to demonstrate is constitutionally protected in Vietnam, the government had routinely violated this right by applying their Decree 38/2005/NĐ-CP – to regulate “public gatherings – during protests to arrest the participants.

Since the nationwide mass protests broke out in June 2018 against the draft bills on the cybersecurity law and the development of three special economic zones, the security police have continued to track down those who had participated and made arrests in different cities and provinces.

The family of a woman names Doan Thi Hong from Binh Thuan Province has recently made a public plea on social media, alleging that Hong was taken into police custody by a group of plainclothes police on September 2, 2018. She was a participant in the same June 2018 protest mentioned above.

Although she has a young child under 36-month-old at the time of the arrest, which under Vietnam’s laws is a factor to consider against pre-trial detention, her sister claimed that Hong had been arbitrarily kept incommunicado since September of last year.

According to her sister, Hong was not a dissident and only exercised her right to protest that one time.

It seems that the police’s recent investigations targetting Facebook’s activities and usage in Vietnam also focus primarily on the average users and not necessarily the more well-known bloggers and dissidents.

Vietnamese Police Continue Questioning People Over Facebook Activities

RELATED POSTS

New Draft Law on Electronic Identification Proposes Mandatory Digital ID Check on 11 Online Sectors

Content Creation in Việt Nam: Navigating Censorship and Post-Takedowns

Vietnamese Activists Cannot Afford an Anti-AI Stance

thereporter

Related Posts

Human Rights Watch Urges Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi to Press Việt Nam on Prisoner Releases Ahead of Tô Lâm Visit

New Draft Law on Electronic Identification Proposes Mandatory Digital ID Check on 11 Online Sectors

No Judge, No Trial: Police Want Commune Chiefs to Lock People Up for Two Years

Police Arrest Đà Nẵng Educator for Fraud. Parents Defend Him, and the Post Disappears.

Under Việt Nam’s Draft Land Law, Officials Could Seize Citizens’ Land as Soon as They Find a Temporary Home

Vietnamese Threads Users Compare Ba Vì Safari Project to 2020 Đồng Tâm Land Clash

Vietnam-China Border War 1979: When Vietnamese People Refused To Forget

Death-Row Inmate Dang Van Hien May Get A Second Chance At Life

OPINIONS

Southern Vietnamese Changed After 1975. Loving the Old Words Doesn’t Mean Fighting the New Ones.

Four Journalists Are in Prison in Việt Nam. Their Mother, Sister, and Wives Demand Their Release

Canada and the West Cannot Ignore Việt Nam’s Human Rights Record

POPULAR STORIES

Hà Nội ‘Justice Tree’: Social Media Users Demand Investigation into Former Lawmaker Nguyễn Sỹ Cương

Việt Nam Culture Ministry Blocks Threads Posts Accusing Nguyễn Sỹ Cương

Religion Bulletin – April 2026 – Việt Nam Passes Amended Religion Law As Authorities Prosecute Four Independent Protestants

Post-1975 Tragedy: The Grim Reality of Life in Vietnam’s Re-education Camps

Former Deputy Nguyễn Sỹ Cương Trends on Vietnamese Social Media Following Rap Album Censorship