Vietnam to require registration of social media, even on global platforms

Vietnam's deputy minister of information and communications has indicated the nation will require all social media accounts to be registered – even those held on platforms run outside Vietnam but used within the country. As reported by national broadcaster Voice of Vietnam (VOV), the government will introduce a requirement for …

[Zippy´s Sausage Factory]

I suspect most governments will be watching this legislation very closely. And if it succeeds, it won't be long before it starts being the new normal. I feel we can almost guarantee that "think of the children" and "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" are going to become very familiar phrases again soon.

[Anonymous Coward]

re: you have nothing to fear

Those who have something to fear will the refusniks who are not on any mainstream social-media platform.

err.... like me. I guess I'd have to give them my El-Reg creds and hope...

[iron]

> very familiar phrases again soon

Again? When did they ever go away?

I've been fighting the encryption war since the 90s and their rhetoric never changes.

[mark l 2]

I remember seeing shops in Thailand where you could get 'novelty' driving licenses from a variety of countries with whatever you wanted putting on them printed up with your photo on while you waited. And the UK ones looked pretty convincing against my real one. So its not going to deter any criminals, just inconvenience ordinary citizens. As i doubt social media companies are going to be looking very hard to spot counterfeit IDs when verifying accounts coming from Vietnam

[LybsterRoy]

-- So its not going to deter any criminals, just inconvenience ordinary citizens --

This is true of much legislation. Look at money laundering for instance.