Facebook, YouTube, Twitter May Be Impacted As Vietnam Reportedly Plans Rules To Limit News Posts On Social Media

Vietnam is reportedly planning to introduce new laws to limit which social media accounts can post news-related content. This could come as a setback for social media giants such as Meta Platforms Inc.’s META Facebook, Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL YouTube, and Twitter Inc. TWTR. 

What Happened: The authorities would announce the rules by the year-end, two unidentified sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The new rules would legally bind the online platforms for controlling news dissemination as the government tightens its control over news and information sources in the country.

See Also: Facebook, Twitter, Google Ordered By Vietnam To Store User Data Onshore And Set Up Physical Offices

"The government wants to fix what it sees as the 'news-lisation' of social media," a source told the publication. 

"News-lisation" has often been used by the Vietnamese government to describe scenarios where the users are misled into thinking that social media accounts are authorized news outlets.

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The report also noted that government officials have been holding confidential meetings with tech giants to brief them on which types of accounts will be allowed to post news content under the new rules.

Why It Matters: Sources told the publication that, according to 2021 data, Vietnam remained among the top-10 market globally for Facebook with over 70 million users, and generated about $1 billion in annual revenue for the company. At the same time, YouTube has 60 million users in the country, while Twitter is a relatively small player.

The new rules are also expected to give authorities the power to order social media companies to ban accounts that break those rules.

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