Under “Decree 147”, all tech giants operating in Vietnam must verify users’ accounts via their phone numbers or Vietnamese identification numbers and store that information alongside their full name and date of birth.
The new rules came into force on Wednesday, state media VNExpress said.
“Decree 147 will be used to publicly suppress those with different viewpoints,“ said activist Dang Thi Hue, who writes about politics and social issues on her Facebook account, which has 28,000 followers.
“No one wants to go to jail, so of course some activists will be more cautious and afraid of this decree.”
In October, blogger Duong Van Thai -- who had almost 120,000 followers on YouTube, where he regularly recorded livestreams critical of the government -- was jailed for 12 years on charges of publishing anti-state information.
‘Just keep playing’
Aside from the ramifications for social media firms, the new laws also include curbs on gaming for under-18s, designed to prevent addiction.
Just over half of Vietnam’s 100 million population regularly plays such games, says data research firm Newzoo.
The force of the decree was yet to be felt at a small online gaming cafe in capital Hanoi, where around a dozen young people were glued to their desktop screens.
“I just keep playing, and as you see, it still works.”
The owner of the cafe, who charges around 30 cents for an hour of gaming, was similarly nonchalant.
“My business is still going normally. They pay and we let them use the desktop for their gaming. It’s simple.”
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