Việt Nam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has initiated a crackdown on the social media platform Threads, blocking posts that accuse former National Assembly deputy Nguyễn Sỹ Cương of having impunity and escaping justice.
The Latest: Early on Aug. 13, multiple Threads users said that their posts were “not available in Việt Nam” because “Việt Nam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism requested that access to your post be restricted.”
- Threads stated that the request was “based on local law.”
- In recent days, Nguyễn Sỹ Cương has become one of the most widely discussed figures on the platform amid allegations that he caused a fatal traffic crash in Hà Nội on May 30, 2025, but was not prosecuted.
- As of 2 p.m. on Aug. 12, well over 1 million posts had mentioned the case.
Blocked Posts: The restrictions target user discussions surrounding the crash and the political ties of the accused.
- On Aug. 9, the user meowminiji wrote:
“Nguyễn Sĩ Cương, a former Vietnamese National Assembly deputy, struck and killed someone and then fled, but he still has not been dealt with!!!! His wife, Lâm Thị Phương Thanh, is currently Việt Nam’s minister of culture, sports, and tourism, and his son is singer Lâm Phúc, the runner-up on Vietnam Idol. On May 30, 2025, he drove drunk and struck someone, killing them, while the Vietnamese press has remained silent to this day. There has still been no outcome or appropriate punishment for an evil person who continues to live freely.”
- Similarly, on the evening of Aug. 12, user hatgiongthanhthien said that the Culture Ministry had requested that a post and a video published several days earlier be restricted in Việt Nam. The blocked post, published Aug. 8, read:
“Lâm Thị Phương Thanh—the wife of Nguyễn Sỹ Cương—was officially appointed minister of culture, sports, and tourism on April 8, 2026. Official appointment: At the first session of the 16th National Assembly, lawmakers approved Thanh’s promotion from permanent deputy minister to minister for the 2026–2031 term.”
- A post by user cupofdumbb was also hidden from Threads users in Việt Nam. The post, which had received more than 29,500 likes and 3,300 reposts as of 10 a.m. on Aug. 13, read:
“They removed the album first because, if it offended anyone, it only affected ordinary people. If culture matters so much, why has no verdict emerged against Minister Lâm Thị Phương Thanh’s husband, former National Assembly deputy Nguyễn Sỹ Cương, over a fatal traffic crash?”
- The restrictions were not limited to Threads.
- A Luật Khoa news brief titled “Nguyễn Sỹ Cương Becomes a Viral Sensation on Threads,” published on Facebook on Aug. 12, was also restricted in Việt Nam on the morning of Aug. 13 at the request of the Ministry of Public Security.
Who is Nguyễn Sỹ Cương? Born in 1961, Nguyễn Sỹ Cương served as a National Assembly deputy from 2011 to 2021.
- He was previously a standing member of the 13th National Assembly’s Law Committee and later its Foreign Affairs Committee.
The 2025 Car Crash: According to the Pháp Luật newspaper, at about 1:15 p.m. on May 30, 2025, a 64-year-old man identified by the initials N.S.C., who lived in what was then Hà Nội’s Đống Đa District, was driving a BMW along Nguyễn Huy Tự Street from Trần Khánh Dư toward Yersin Street when he collided with a motorcycle traveling in the opposite direction.
- The motorcycle was driven by Đ.V.H., who was carrying his 18-year-old daughter, Đ.N.P.T.
- The crash broke Đ.V.H.’s leg and critically injured Đ.N.P.T., severing her right leg.
- She was taken to a hospital for emergency treatment but later died.
On May 31, 2025, a representative of Road Traffic Police Team No. 4 said that the case file had been transferred to the Hà Nội Police Investigation Agency for further investigation.
At 12:34 a.m. on June 8, 2025, more than a week after the crash, Đỗ Quang Minh, a relative of the victim, published a Facebook post confirming that “Thùy—whom the family called Mina—the victim of the accident in which her leg was severed more than a week ago” had died.
On June 10, 2025, a funeral notice appeared on the VOZ forum.
- It read: “The visitation for Đỗ Ngọc Phương Thùy will begin at 2:15 p.m. on June 11, 2025. Location: National Funeral Hall, No. 5 Trần Thánh Tông Street, Hà Nội.”
- According to the notice, Đỗ Ngọc Phương—whose parents were identified as Đỗ Việt Hùng and Nguyễn Quỳnh Trang Thùy—died at 10:07 p.m. on June 7, 2025.
Since then, neither police agencies nor state-run news outlets have provided further information about the case.
Why It Matters: The minister of culture, sports, and tourism is Lâm Thị Phương Thanh, the wife of Nguyễn Sỹ Cương.
- Alongside the Ministry of Public Security, the Culture Ministry is responsible for censoring information online. That includes asking Meta, the owner of Facebook and Threads, to remove or restrict content authorities consider unlawful.
- However, there is currently no information indicating that Minister Thanh personally ordered or influenced these restrictions.
Thành Phương wrote this news article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on August 13, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine translated it into English.
