Vietnam Cracking Down on Bloggers

In a nutshell, stick to telling funny stories about your dog or sharing what you ate for lunch with your readers, says the Vietnamese government. And Internet service providers will have to ally with the government to make sure that bloggers abide by the rules. More:

"The new circular, of which AFP obtained a copy Wednesday, stipulates blogs are to display private content, and must not 'provide, transmit or have direct links' to information that would violate another regulation from earlier this year.

That regulation bans online behaviour that 'opposes the state... undermines national security and social order and safety,' causes conflict, or discloses national security, military or economic secrets.

Thanh Nien newspaper earlier said this month that authorities would contact Internet giants Google and Yahoo! for their cooperation 'in creating the best and healthiest environment for bloggers.'

The new circular asks 'enterprises specialised in providing social online services' to build up a database on blogs under their supervision and provide information to authorities on request, as well as to eliminate content which may contravene regulations."

Here's how you can let Google and Yahoo! know that they shouldn't be cooperating with the Vietnamese government to jail bloggers -- and that they should have learned their lesson from Shi Tao and other imprisoned Chinese journalists:

Google Inc.

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

Mountain View, CA 94043

Phone: +1 650-253-0000

Fax: +1 650-253-0001

Yahoo! Inc.

701 First Avenue

Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Tel: (408) 349-3300

Fax: (408) 349-3301

Luu Vu Hai, chief of Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications’ Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information Control Agency, incredibly claims that the regulations aren't about violating free speech.