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Background Briefing: Vietnam: Effacing Facebook? Carlyle A. Thayer January 27, 2012

[clientnamedeleted] WearepreparingabriefanalysisregardingFacebookinVietnam..Ourargumentis thatthoughthesiteis"blocked"thebanhasneverbeentooserious.VNATrecently told the press that one way to promote tourism was via social networks like Facebook. Meanwhile Thanh Nien has its own Facebook page and you can "like" storiesontheirEnglishlanguagesite. We have concluded that a) the block isn't really that serious and b) coordination between government agencies is poor. One minister did apparently tell the press thatthereasontheblockwasinplacewasbecauseituseduptoomuchbandwidth. Wewouldappreciateyourinput. ANSWER: OnFacebook: the sagaof FacebookinVietnamislike aninsightintothe innerworkingoftheregime.Nooneknowsforcertainhowdecisionsaremadeand more importantly how they are implemented. And like most controversial issues, thereiscontradictoryevidence.IsFacebookreallybanned?Orisitbeingharassedby internet service providers (ISP)? What are the reasons for blocking Facebook political or commercial? Are the ISPs merely blocking Facebook intermittently to protect themselves? Does Vietnam even have the capacity to enforce a ban given that how to access Facebook instructions are freely available on the internet. Finally, is there disagreement among the policy elite on Facebook? If Facebook is really banned, then why does the Finance Minister Vuong Dinh Hoe promote Facebookasawayofreachingouttothepublic?