Vietnam Tightens Blog Rules

Vietnam has tightened its rules on blogs from citizens, banning inappropriate subjects and holding ISPs responsible for the blogs they host.

In a change of direction, Vietnamese media has reported that the country’s government is tightening up rules on blogging, banning topics deemed inappropriate by the government, and allowing “clean and wholesome” language only, with blogs forced to followed Vietnamese law, the BBC reports.

ISPs hosting blogs will be held responsible for their content. It’s an interesting turn of affairs for a country where many rely on blogs for news, and where a quarter of the population, about 20 million people, use the Internet.

However, the state keeps firm controls over the media, and under these new rules from the Ministry of Information and Communications, ISPs will have to give reports to the government every six months and provide information about bloggers when requested.

How much the rules will affect international companies such as Google or Yahoo, whose Yahoo!360 is Vietnam’s largest blogging host, remains to be seen.