Between Feb. 22 and 25, 2023, Vietnamese authorities detained [1] four people, including two lawyers, a State journalist, and a local Facebook user, on the allegations of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state, lawful rights, and interests of organizations and/or citizens,” which violate Article 331 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code. Most of the evidence collected to authorize their arrests was found on social media platforms, mainly Facebook.

The Vietnamese government has routinely deployed criminal charges from its legal playbook to suppress and intimidate regime critics and opposition voices. The most common accusations used by Hanoi include Article 117, which forbids the “distribution of anti-State materials,” Article 318, which criminalizes those who “cause public disorder,” and most recently, Article 200, which prohibits “tax evasion” activities levied against registered civil society leaders in the country.