To ask service providers to remove content if it is deemed to violate the government’s guidelines, authorities will have the right to issue data collections requests for the purpose of investigation
Technology firms have been ordered by Vietnam’s government for storing their users’ data locally and set up local offices, its latest move to tighten cybersecurity rules.
Social media companies like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta’s Facebook, and telecommunications operators will have to follow the new rules, issued in a decree on Wednesday, and will take effect on 01 October.
“Data of all internet users ranging from financial records and biometric data to information on peoples’ ethnicity and political views, or any data created by users while surfing the internet must be to stored domestically,” the decree stated.
To ask service providers to remove content if it is deemed to violate the government’s guidelines, authorities will have the right to issue data collections requests for the purpose of investigation, the decree added.
After receiving instructions from the Minister of Public Security, foreign firms will have 12 months to set up local storage and representative offices, and will have to store the data onshore for a minimum period of 24 months, according to the decree.
Two tech firms contacted by Reuters, Google and Meta, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Communist Party, which maintains tight media censorship and tolerates little dissent runs Vietnam. Culminating in a cybersecurity law that came into effect in 2019 and national guidelines on social media behaviour introduced in June last year, it has tightened internet rules over the past few years.
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