[Taiwan, June 11, 2025] – Legal Initiatives for Vietnam (LIV), in collaboration with ARTICLE 19 and CLARITI, hosted a virtual webinar to address the findings of its recent Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) on Facebook’s operations in Vietnam. The event formally presented the comprehensive report, released on May 31, 2025, and sparked critical discussion on the role of foreign technology companies in Vietnam’s increasingly restrictive digital environment.

Moderator and LIV Interim Executive Director, Trịnh Hữu Long, opened the event by acknowledging Facebook’s pervasive influence on daily life and connectivity in Vietnam. However, he stressed that this presence has a darker side. Seven years after the implementation of the country’s cybersecurity law, Long highlighted what the HRIA reveals as a “problem reality”: Facebook is actively assisting the Vietnamese government in controlling information and suppressing dissent. He affirmed that defending digital civic space is “a long long-term effort” that “we cannot give up.”