The new rules, issued in a decree on Wednesday, will apply
to social media companies like Alphabet's Google and Meta's Facebook, and
telecommunications operators, and will take effect on October 1.
"Data of all Internet users ranging from financial
records and biometric data to information on peoples' ethnicity and political
views, or any data created by users while surfing the internet must be to
stored domestically," the decree stated.
Authorities will have the right to issue data collection
requests for purpose of investigation and to ask service providers to remove
content if it is deemed to violate the government's guidelines, the decree
added.
Foreign firms will have 12 months to set up local data
storage and representative offices after receiving instructions from the
Minister of Public Security, and will have to store the data onshore for a
minimum period of 24 months, according to the decree.
Two tech firms contacted by Reuters, Google and Meta, did
not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Vietnam is run by the Communist Party, which maintains tight
media censorship and tolerates little dissent. It has tightened Internet rules
over the past few years, culminating in a cybersecurity law that came into
effect in 2019 and national guidelines on social media behaviour introduced in
June last year. © Reuters
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