Vietnamese tech firm sues TikTok, alleging copyright infringement

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese technology firm VNG is suing TikTok, the popular short-form video app, saying it does not have adequate licences for the songs being used in its videos, sources said on Monday.

VNG is accusing the Chinese-owned company of using audio tracks owned by Zing, a VNG subsidiary, without the company’s consent, two sources familiar with the issue said.

A legal document from the people’s court of Ho Chi Minh City seen by Reuters seeks damages from TikTok and demands that it ceases use of Zing’s music.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tiktok-copyright-vietnam/vietnamese-tech-firm-sues-tiktok-alleging-copyright-infringement-idUSKBN25K0YL

#Asia #Vietnam #TikTok #copyright #lawsuit

Vietnam is importing the worst of Chinese-style online censorship

Vietnam is monitoring online speech.

One of the problems with China’s extensive and invasive internet control and censorship is just how efficient it is, thus “inspiring” many other countries around the world to either try to copy, or implement it in one way or another, to serve their particular situation and goals.

This appears to have manifested in Vietnam, whose authorities are said to be invested in fostering nationalism online, but also carefully monitoring social media in the hope of controlling content and narratives.

In 2016, Vietnam put to work 10,000 people making up the Force 47 cyber unit that is supposed to maintain a “healthy” online environment and, since late 2018, the country has had a unit whose task is to monitor the internet, sifting through up to 100 million news items every day in search of “misinformation”.

https://reclaimthenet.org/vietnam-is-importing-the-worst-of-chinese-style-online-censorship/

#Asia #Vietnam #censorship

Vietnam’s contact-tracing app: Public health tool or creeping surveillance?

Vietnam has been lauded for its robust response in containing Covid-19, part of which has been the rolling out of contact-tracing app Bluezone. But tech experts are expressing concern over how the masses of data collected will impact the privacy of users

Independent media, academics and governments alike have lavished praise on the Vietnamese government for its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with mass quarantines, effective public health messaging, a focused testing regime and uncharacteristic transparency all applauded.

The Bluezone contact-tracing app appears to be the Communist Party’s latest success story, having been downloaded more than 20 million times and used to trace 1,400 people suspected of infection, according to state media – an efficiency that stands in contrast to the well-documented failings of similar efforts in wealthier nations like the UK.

However, tech experts fear the app has fatal data privacy flaws and contend that it can be used by the state to harvest far more information on users than its developers claim is possible.

The app, developed by leading Vietnamese internet security company Bkav and the Ministry of Information and Communications, was launched in April to little fanfare and garnered only about 100,000 downloads initially.

https://southeastasiaglobe.com/bluezone-contact-tracing-app/

#Asia #Vietnam #covidapp #surveillance

Facebook touts free speech. In Vietnam, it’s aiding in censorship

For months, Bui Van Thuan, a chemistry teacher turned crusading blogger in Vietnam, published one scathing Facebook post after another on a land dispute between villagers and the communist government.

In a country with no independent media, Facebook provides the only platform where Vietnamese can read about contentious topics such as Dong Tam, a village outside Hanoi where residents were fighting authorities’ plans to seize farmland to build a factory.

Believing a confrontation was inevitable, the 40-year-old Thuan condemned the country’s leaders in a Jan. 7 post. “Your crimes will be engraved on my mind,” he wrote. “I know you — the land robbers — will do everything, however cruel it is, to grab the people’s land.”

Facebook blocked his account the next day at the government’s insistence, preventing 60 million Vietnamese users from seeing his posts.

One day later, as Thuan had warned, police stormed Dong Tam with tear gas and grenades. A village leader and three officers were killed.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-10-22/facebook-censorship-suppress-dissent-vietnam

#Asia #Vietnam #facebook #censorship

Exclusive: Vietnam threatens to shut down Facebook over censorship requests - source

Vietnam has threatened to shut down Facebook in the country if it does not bow to government pressure to censor more local political content on its platform, a senior official at the U.S. social media giant told Reuters.

Facebook complied with a government request in April to significantly increase its censorship of “anti-state” posts for local users, but Vietnam asked the company again in August to step up its restrictions of critical posts, the official said.

“We made an agreement in April. Facebook has upheld our end of the agreement, and we expected the government of Vietnam to do the same,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the subject.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-facebook-shutdown-exclusive-idUSKBN27Z1MP

related post : https://t.me/NoGoolag/4247

#Asia #Vietnam #facebook #censorship

They just started lockdown in Vietnam, barbed wire fences to isolate streets and tower blocks. We're not allowed to travel outside our local ward, police check points on ward boundaries, can only go to buy food every 4 days with a government issued ticket, no ticket no service.
No mask big fine,
No outdoor exercise.
Delivery people must have a negative test to work.

#vietnam

A deeper dive into the history of the CDC:

After the Vietnam War, tens of thousands of Veterans and their children reported diseases and birth defects caused by Agent Orange.

The CDC responded by twisting the science on Agent Orange to deny their benefits.

https://technofog.substack.com/p/how-the-cdc-betrayed-victims-of-agent

#cdc #agent #orange #Vietnam

The Legacy of Agent Orange

http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/orange.htm

#agent #orange #Vietnam

Human stolen from the street because she doesn't have an "official permit" #Vietnam

#vietnam

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/hanoi-mandates-covid-19-testing-in-locked-down-areas-4346274.html

Former CIA Agent John Stockwell Talks about how the #CIA worked in #Vietnam and elsewhere and explains #Propaganda techniques, fakes with #journalist & #medias

John Stockwell left the CIA when he decided that what they were doing was endangering national security not protecting it.

John R. Stockwell (born 1937) is a former CIA officer who became a critic of United States government policies after serving seven tours of duty over thirteen years. Having managed American involvement in the Angolan Civil War as Chief of the Angola Task Force during its 1975 covert operations, he resigned and wrote "In Search of Enemies".

Better quality video
https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=NK1tfkESPVY

#Ukraine #Whistleblower #covert #intel #Stockwell

tim anderson (@timand2037): "Congratulations to the people of #Vietnam who, on 30 April 1975, chased the monstruous #US imperialists from their country, tail between their legs. To this day the war media calls this victory "the fall of #Saigon", like the " fall of #Aleppo, etc . https://english.vov.vn/en/politics/domestic/april-30-1975-victory-an-undeniable-truth-in-history-post940696.vov" | Nitter | PussTheCat.org – https://nitter.pussthecat.org/timand2037/status/1520213560709812225#m

A handful of nations distributing new #digital #ID documents

▪️In Hanoi, capital of #Vietnam, the public security department has begun a month of intense government action to get digital IDs into the hands of every resident who does not already have one.

▪️Brazil’s government, meanwhile, expects to begin distributing is chip-based national identity card.

▪️Saint Lucia joins other #Caribbean nations using digital IDs, including Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize Grenada and St. Kitts and Nevis.

▪️Greece is expected to replace conventional ID and driving documents with mobile ID documents on phones beginning this week.

🔗 Article

#vietnam #vietcong #tunnels guerrilla warfare