Zuck loves free speech so much Facebook will censor 'anti-state' content in Vietnam after telcos 'crippled' access

Facebook has given in to Vietnamese government demands, and agreed to remove any content considered “anti-state” after telcos in the nation reportedly cut off access to the social network's systems. Vietnamese users found the social media site difficult to access in February amid growing alarm over the COVID-19 coronavirus …

[Khaptain]

Money money money

That arrogant twat Zuck only believes in one kind of freedom, his own. Everyone else can just fuck off.

[Huw D]

Re: Money money money

"Zuck off"

[Anonymous Coward]

John Milton's Areopagitica

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”

[ComputerSays_noAbsolutelyNo]

No Connection Without Taxation

Well, we should take a closer look on whether the internet companies pay their fair share of taxes.

[Andy Non]

Facebook has strict moral principles

but if you don't like those, it has others.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why an unethical company...

... should show an ethic?

Expecting anything ethical from most companies is wasted time.

Anyway Vietnamese fought hard to get a Communist government, now they have to enjoy it, and praise the wisdom of their censorship on Facebook....

[Warm Braw]

Editorial responsibility?

Wasn't that the thing we were told would make Facebook et al. unsustainable?

[Pascal Monett]

So that's how you make The Zuck comply

"Facebook has [..] agreed to remove any content considered “anti-state” after telcos in the nation reportedly cut off access to the social network's systems"

And there you go, now you know how to ensure that The Zuck does what you tell him to. No more Congressional hearings where he pretends to give a fuck, just shut off his platform until he does as he's told.

It's nice to see that there are some people that have balls in this world. Shame that none (or very few) of them are in democratic countries.

Facebook is a company. It will parrot whatever people want to hear to polish its image, and it will do whatever it takes to polish its revenue.

[genghis_uk]

Re: So that's how you make The Zuck comply

The problem is that in democratic countries, this is a bit of a no-no.

Cutting of the platform because you do not like what other people are saying on it would cause a bit more of a stir in the West.

A better response should have been the Google nuclear option and cut access to Vietnam. Even if you accept that Facebook is purely profit driven I cannot see Vietnam making a big dent. It would certainly be preferable to rolling over if only from a PR perspective

[earl grey]

Re: So that's how you make The Zuck comply

"polish its image"

I think you mean to polish its knob.

Yes, she knows all about that, too.

[Will Godfrey]

Shakes head

I don't know whether he is an alien pretending to be a human, or if it's me that's the alien. Either way, I simply can't get into the mindset of people like him.

[Mark192]

Facebook was not complying with legal takedown orders from the Vietnamese government.

It stuck it out for 7 weeks, presumably using non-local servers and moving data over congested cables but this may have put it in breach of Vietnamese laws to keep data locally.

It basically had the choice of either complying with legal takedown orders or ceasing to provide a service to people in Vietnam.

By rolling over on this one it maintains a dominant position in Vietnam and, when satellite Internet becomes cheap and easy, we may find that Facebook once again ceases to comply with legal takedown orders.

[Martin Summers]

If it stuck it out for 7 weeks then it should have stuck it out for longer.

You are either committed to free speech, or you aren't.

[onemark03]

Shakes Head

@ Will Godfrey:

It's not that difficult.

Zuck only believes in freedom of speech/expression to the extent that it doesn't interfere with his revenue stream, i.e. his compliance with Vietnamese law is purely conditional.

If he considers his revenue is in danger, he's more than ready to compromise on his principles.

Simple.

However, whether his compliance with Vietnamese law in this case is some kind of tactical withdrawal until such time as he can organise other means of transmission to/from Vietnam that renders such compliance superfluous/unnecessary (such as the abovementioned satellite internet) remains to be seen. We'll see.

PS:

I'm another one who generally believes that we should shut him down until he toes the line.

[e^iπ+1=0]

tactical withdrawal until such time

Presumably it costs Facebook money to take down restricted content, costs they'd rather avoid.

For example, a disproportionately large number of Facebook moderators (I think I read 25% a while back) are working on removing illegal posts in Germany in order to comply with the country's laws against Nazi content.

I guess this is considerably cheaper for them than pulling out of Germany or getting fined.

Maybe it was easier for Vietnam to just throttle Facebook into complying with their wishes than enact laws which would be subject to public scrutiny, and possibly not broad enough for their requirements.

[Paul 195]

Silicon Valley companies are deeply committed to building a better world that does not interfere with revenue or profits.

[EnviableOne]

Rely on them every day ....

Really, does anyone rely on facebook, its such a den of lies damn lies and statistics, that you cant trust a word.

[Pirate Dave]

"We believe freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, and work hard to protect and defend this important civil liberty around the world."

Unless you're in the US and happen to want to organize a gathering, and use wording that doesn't agree with what some TLAs are pushing as Gospel. In that case, you're zucked.

It boggles the mind at how they can so freely and openly speak out of both sides of their mouth and not expect to ever be called-out on it. They're "Facebook" after all, our most essential and critical of all services.