HANOI: Vietnam’s new cybersecurity law is designed to protect online rights and create a “safe and healthy cyberspace,” the foreign ministry said on Thursday, although critics have warned it gives the Communist-ruled state more power to crack down on dissent.
Seventeen US lawmakers wrote to the chief executives of Facebook and Google on Wednesday, urging them to resist changes wrought by the new law that require foreign tech firms to store locally personal data on users in Vietnam and open offices there.
“As in any other country, the activities of foreign businesses and investors should comply with the laws of the host country,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang told Reuters in a comment on Wednesday’s letter.
“The ratification of the cybersecurity law is aimed at creating a safe and healthy cyberspace,” Hang said in a written statement in response to a request for comment.
That would protect the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals online, and ensure national security as well as social order and safety, she added.
Despite sweeping economic reforms and growing openness to social change, Vietnam’s Communist Party tolerates little dissent.
Global technology firms have pushed back against the requirement to store user data locally, but have not taken the same tough stance on the parts of the law that bolster the government’s crackdown on online political activism.
In particular, the new law gives more direct control over online censorship to the Ministry of Public Security, which is tasked with crushing dissent.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hang did not directly address those accusations, as outlined in Wednesday’s letter from US lawmakers, but said freedom of speech was a right enshrined in Vietnamese law.
“The state of Vietnam always respects and facilitates the rights of its citizens to exercise freedom and democracy but is resolutely against the abuse of those rights to commit illegal activities,” Hang added.
Approved by Vietnamese legislators last month, the law takes effect on January 1 next year.
Vietnam says controversial cybersecurity law aims to protect online rights
Vietnam says controversial cybersecurity law aims to protect online rights
Apple, Google offer app store changes under new UK rules
LONDON: Apple and Google have pledged changes to ensure fairness in their app stores, the UK competition watchdog said Tuesday, describing it as “first steps” under its tougher regulation of technology giants.
The Competition and Markets Authority placed the two companies under “strategic market status” last year, giving it powers to impose stricter rules on their mobile platforms.
Apple and Google have submitted packages of commitments to improve fairness and transparency in their app stores, which the CMA is now consulting market participants on.
The proposals cover data collection, how apps are reviewed and ranked and improved access to their mobile operating systems.
They aim to prevent Apple and Google from giving priority to their own apps and to ensure businesses receive fairer terms for delivering apps to customers, including better access to tools to compete with services like the Apple digital wallet.
“These are important first steps while we continue to work on a broad range of additional measures to improve Apple and Google’s app store services in the UK,” said CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell.
The commitments mark the first changes proposed by US tech giants in response to the UK’s digital markets regulation, which came into force last year.
The UK framework is similar to a tech competition law from the European Union, the Digital Markets Act, which carries the potential for hefty financial penalties.
“The commitments announced today allow Apple to continue advancing important privacy and security innovations for users and great opportunities for developers,” an Apple spokesperson said.
The CMA in October found that Apple and Google held an “effective duopoly,” with around 90 to 100 percent of UK mobile services running on their platforms.
A Google spokesperson said existing practices in its Play online store are “fair, objective and transparent.”
“We welcome the opportunity to resolve the CMA’s concerns collaboratively,” they added.
The changes are set to take effect in April, subject to the outcome of a market consultation.
