LIV Webinar Reveals Facebook’s Role in Digital Suppression in Vietnam, Demands Accountability

[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."

The report’s co-authors, human rights consultant Hoàng Minh Trang and Montagnard human rights advocate H Biap Krong (Becky), presented the core findings. Becky detailed the assessment’s methodology, which was grounded in international human rights standards and the CLARITI framework developed by Ranking Digital Rights. The research involved extensive interviews with affected Facebook users, activists, journalists, and civil society groups to evaluate the platform's real-world impact.

Trang outlined how Facebook's operations fundamentally undermine human rights in three key ways:

Government Censorship and Compliance: Facebook consistently complies with content removal requests from Vietnamese authorities, achieving removal rates that often exceed 90-95%. This practice effectively silences independent journalism and dissent, turning the platform into what speakers described as "a tool for political suppression."

Algorithmic Bias and Content Suppression: The platform's content moderation system exhibits a clear bias, favoring government-aligned narratives while limiting the reach of opposition voices through "selective enforcement." This algorithmic filtering suppresses legitimate political discourse, with LIV’s own Luật Khoa Magazine experiencing significant "shadow banning" and reduced visibility.

Harassment and Security Risks: The report exposes Facebook’s failure to protect human rights defenders and journalists from targeted online harassment. For vulnerable communities, this poses a direct threat. Becky noted that for indigenous groups, even simple posts can lead to police scrutiny, making platform use "a risk to their safety."

Trang emphasized that under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, transnational corporations like Facebook have an obligation to prioritize international human rights frameworks over conflicting domestic laws.

Based on these findings, the HRIA proposes urgent recommendations for Facebook, including:

• Resist Unlawful State Demands: Actively challenge government censorship requests that violate international human rights standards.
• Reform Content Moderation: Implement transparent, fair, and independent review processes to safeguard freedom of expression.
• Protect Vulnerable Users: Introduce stronger security features and clear appeals processes to protect human rights defenders and at-risk communities.
• Increase Transparency: Publish detailed reports on content removals and algorithmic decisions, and label state-sponsored accounts, a practice already applied to content from Russia and China.

The webinar’s Q&A session addressed Facebook's lack of willingness to engage with civil society and the pervasive issue of government-operated "internet trolls." Speakers acknowledged that Facebook possesses the "capacity" to address these problems but currently lacks sufficient incentive to do so.

In closing, the event underscored an alarming reality: Facebook's collaboration with the Vietnamese government poses a direct threat to digital freedom. The speakers urged attendees to demand greater accountability, stressing that the immense power of social media hinges on ethical and transparent operation, ensuring that technology serves to empower rather than oppress.