“The Southeast Asian regime raised concerns about ‘offensive’ content on Facebook and YouTube (the Google-owned video platform) back in February, and persuaded Vietnamese companies to hold onto their advertising budgets until the American firms were able to address government issues,” reported Digital Trends on Sunday. “And now, it seems as though at least one company has made those adjustments.”
In a statement, the Vietnamese government announced their partnership with Alphabet to censor “illegal” content in the country.
“Mr. Eric Schmidt said (he) will tightly cooperate with Vietnam to remove toxic information violating Vietnamese laws and will consider opening a representative office in the country,” they declared following a meeting between Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt.
Despite the apparent success of the meeting, however, Google claims that their policy has not changed
“We have clear policies for removal requests from governments around the world, and those policies have not changed,” said Google spokesman Taj Meadows. “We rely on governments to notify us of content that they believe is illegal through official processes, and where appropriate, will restrict it after a thorough review.”
Schmidt also met with Vietnamese activist Mai Khoi during his diplomatic trip, where the two discussed internet freedom.
“I told Eric about Vietnam’s internet censorship issue and he said he knew about it and would try to improve internet freedom here in a delicate way,” said Khoi, despite the government’s claims that Alphabet would aid them with the opposite.
According to Digital Trends, The Socialist Republic of Vietnam “has previously borne criticism for its treatment of dissidents and anti-government personalities, having arrested many who have spoken out against the communist regime.”
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook.
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