The Daily Mail is reporting that Facebook agreed to censor posts critical of Vietnam’s communist regime after two of the country’s telecoms began limiting people’s access to Facebook in that country.
According to sources inside Facebook, in order to have the service fully restored, Facebook agreed to censor all articles critical of the communist regime, which is considered illegal in that country. Apparently, Vietnam is Facebook’s largest Asian market.
Vietnam’s communist regime has also accused Facebook of violating its cyber-security laws. Among other things, these laws apparently require companies to set up servers in Vietnam to store information. Facebook says it has not complied with this demand.
However, Amnesty Internation reports that the Communist regime has arrested several people who posted articles on Facebook critical of the government.
Though Facebook claims it supports “Free Speech,” apparently 70% of Vietnam’s annual digital ad revenue (US$555million) goes to either Google or Facebook.
READ: Facebook agreed to censor posts criticising Vietnamese government after the country slowed down its traffic