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Addressing the Communist Party-dominated assembly before the vote, chairman of the Committee on Defense and Security Vo Trong Viet said the law is \u201cextremely necessary to defend the interests of the people and national security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Viet said the law doesn\u2019t contradict Vietnam\u2019s commitments to multinational trade treaties such as the World Trade Organization and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but he said there are exceptions on national security grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said requiring foreign companies to set up data centers in Vietnam may increase their operational costs, but it was necessary for the country\u2019s cybersecurity and will facilitate the companies\u2019 operations and user activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen there are acts of violation of cybersecurity, the coordination in handling the violations will be more effective and more viable,\u201d Viet said, without elaborating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An estimated 70 percent of Vietnam\u2019s 93 million people are online and some 53 million people have Facebook accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jeff Paine, managing director of Asia Internet Coalition, an industry association that includes Google and Facebook, said that the group was disappointed with the passage of the law whose requirements on data localization, content control and local offices will hinder the country\u2019s ambitions to achieve GDP and job growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnfortunately, these provisions will result in severe limitations on Vietnam\u2019s digital economy, dampening the foreign investment climate and hurting opportunities for local businesses and SMEs to flourish inside and beyond Vietnam,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Vietnam Digital Communications Association said the law may reduce GDP growth by 1.7 percent and wipe out foreign investment by 3.1 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Facebook did not comment on the new legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amnesty International said the decision has potentially devastating consequences for freedom of expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the country\u2019s deeply repressive climate, the online space was a relative refuge where people could go to share ideas and opinions with less fear of censure by the authorities,\u201d Clare Algar, Amnesty International\u2019s director of global operations, said in a statement Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the law grants the government sweeping powers to monitor online activity, which means \u201cthere is now no safe place left in Vietnam for people to speak freely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis law can only work if tech companies cooperate with government demands to hand over private data. These companies must not be party to human rights abuses, and we urge them to use the considerable power they have at their disposal to challenge Viet Nam\u2019s government on this regressive legislation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite sweeping economic reforms since the mid-1980s that made Vietnam one of fastest growing economies in the region, authorities maintains tight control over almost all aspects of life including the media and religion and tolerate no challenge to the one-party rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HANOI, Vietnam \u2014 Vietnamese legislators on Tuesday passed a contentious cybersecurity law, which critics say will hurt the economy and further restrict freedom of expression. Critics include the U.S. Embassy, which said last week it found the draft of the law containing \u201cserious obstacles to Vietnam\u2019s cybersecurity and digital innovation future, and may not be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":47831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1328],"class_list":["post-16074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"WIIK4AW5RNDLHBSL4YL2UCUGSM","arc_canonical_url":"\/international\/2018\/06\/12\/us-expresses-concern-with-draft-of-newly-passed-vietnam-cybersecurity-law\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n