How Vietnamese bloggers evade controls

By Jak Phillips, TIME

Being a dissident in Vietnam has always been a dangerous business, and it’s getting more so. Ranked as the world’s 8th worst country for online freedom in 2012 by Freedom House, Vietnam has seen over 50 bloggers and activists arrested already this year, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Blogger JB Nguyen Huu Vinh takes photos while attending an anti-China protest in Hanoi on July 22, 2012.

Things got even tighter for the country’s 30 million web users when the government began enforcing the now infamous Decree 72 on Sept. 1. Among other things, the vaguely worded law bans the publishing of material that “opposes” the Socialist Republic of Vietnam or “harms national security.” Definitions of offending matter are disconcertingly broad and could, for example, include news, which would make it illegal for Vietnam’s 16 million Facebook users to discuss articles, or even to post links to them. A ban on messaging platforms such as Whatsapp, Viber and Line has also been proposed.

“Decree 72 will be all about selective enforcement, going after people the government has decided it doesn’t like and nailing them for sharing news through social media,” says Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for HRW. But bloggers and activists are not giving into the government’s ever-growing determination to silence free speech. Instead, they’re getting smarter about the ways in which they put their messages across. Step forward Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group using its Washington-based office to offer online lessons in evading cyber surveillance.

Since 2009, Viet Tan has trained hundreds of online activists over Skype, or sometimes in person. Bloggers are taught how to communicate securely by encrypting messages and files, how to wipe incriminating data from their computers and how to conceal IP addresses through a range of techniques. The group has even launched nofirewall.blogspot.com, a sort of Anarchist’s Cookbook for online activists, featuring a host of useful tips (although how to hack government sites isn’t among them — Viet Tan has a non-violent ethos).

The group also hopes to educate ordinary Vietnamese in cyber safety. It has produced a music video parody of Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back,” which shows viewers how to “bring Facebook back” from behind a firewall, and issued a cartoon take on Romeo and Juliet, which highlights the dangers of phishing and using unsecured browsers.

Unsurprisingly, Hanoi regards Viet Tan as a subversive organization. In January, 14 activists were sentenced to lengthy prison terms after attending a Viet Tan training session in Bangkok, with authorities alleging that participation amounted to an “attempt to overthrow the government.”

Read the full article by Jak Phillips from TIME.