A new cybersecurity decree grants sweeping enforcement powers to the lowest level of government, the communal police.
The Latest: On Aug. 19, 2026, the government issued Decree No. 330/2026, a regulation governing administrative penalties in cybersecurity and personal data protection.
- The decree, which contains four chapters and 82 articles, took effect immediately.
- It grants sweeping enforcement powers to Việt Nam’s lowest administrative level, authorizing commune-level officials to severely penalize online infractions.
The Details: Under Articles 72 and 73, commune police chiefs and chairpersons of commune-level People’s Committees may:
- Impose fines of up to 100 million đồng ($3,825 USD) for cybersecurity violations, and up to 50% of the maximum penalty for personal data protection violations;
- Suspend licenses or operations for a specified period;
- Order information removed, deleted, or corrected and require domain names to be withdrawn
Commune police chiefs and People’s Committee chairpersons are also authorized to directly determine and penalize numerous other violations listed in Chapter II. These violations include:
- Sharing information that “negatively affects the security and public order situation” under Article 9; publishing “false” information about sovereignty, security, or national defense;
- “Distorting … the reputation of agencies, organizations, or the People’s government” under Article 9;
- Publishing information “inconsistent with fine traditions and customs or social morality” under Article 11;
- Disseminating “false or unverified” information under Article 11
Additionally, Decree 330 grants similar authority to police officers on duty under Clause 1 of Article 74.
- These officers may impose fines of up to 20 million đồng and confiscate items involved in an offense if their value does not exceed twice the fine.
The Background: Controlling cyberspace remains one of the Ministry of Public Security’s highest priorities.
- Amid recent Gen Z-led opposition over social issues such as the Làng Vân project and the case involving former National Assembly deputy Nguyễn Sỹ Cương, the ministry has ordered numerous social media posts to be blocked or removed.
In recent years, many social media users in Việt Nam have been “invited for questioning,” fined, or required to sign pledges over posts, comments or participation in Facebook groups.
- Authorities frequently describe the targeted content as “fake or false information” and assert that it criticizes the Communist Party, the state or senior leaders. More recently, such police interventions have grown more frequent and severe.
- On May 20, Huế police “invited for questioning” 45 Facebook account holders who had regularly interacted with pages authorities described as “reactionary,” including those associated with Lê Trung Khoa and Nguyễn Văn Đài.
- Most recently, between June 10 and 20, Đà Nẵng police summoned 79 people for “questioning, warnings, and education” over interactions and comments dating back to 2020 on pages labeled “reactionary,” including “thoibao-de,” “Lê Trung Khoa,” and “Nguyễn Văn Đài.”
Why It Matters: This marks the first cybersecurity decree to authorize commune-level officials—at Việt Nam’s lowest administrative level—to impose fines of up to 100 million đồng.
- Many of the violations within their jurisdiction rely on broadly worded concepts that could be interpreted arbitrarily, including “negative effects,” “false information,” “distortion” and content that violates “fine traditions and customs.”
- The decree provides no definitions for those terms, and its provisions governing online content also make no distinction between statements of fact and expressions of opinion.
Penalties for allegedly publishing “fake or false information” have long been contradictory and have divided public reactions.
- This was highlighted on the afternoon of Aug. 22, when Hồ Chí Minh City police detained Lê Thị Hiểu to investigate her for allegedly “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state and the lawful rights and interests of organizations and individuals.”
- Police stated that one of Lê Thị Hiểu’s TikTok claims determined to be false was that “more than 38,800 businesses have withdrawn from the market in Hồ Chí Minh City.”
- However, figures released by the city at an Aug. 12 meeting showed that 38,800 businesses had exited the market during the first seven months of 2026.
- It remains unclear on what basis investigators classified her statement that “more than 38,800 businesses have withdrawn from the market in Hồ Chí Minh City” as false.
The next day, Tuổi Trẻ published an article titled, “Why Did TikToker QuyHoi’s Video Saying ‘38,800 Businesses Withdrew from the Hồ Chí Minh City Market’ Violate the Law?”
- The newspaper argued that the video “did not simply state that 38,800 businesses had withdrawn from the Hồ Chí Minh City market, as previously reported by the press.” Instead, it said Lê Thị Hiểu made “sweeping, false, and distorted statements” that attacked and insulted city leaders.
Thành Phương wrote this news article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on August 26, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine translated it into English.
