Police in Vietnam have arrested a popular Facebook user over allegedly abusing democratic freedom and publishing of posts that are against the state, state media reported on Thursday.
According to the report, Truong Chau Huu Danh, 38, a former journalist, will be detained for three months for posts that the police said were abuses of freedom of speech and infringements on state interests, the Ho Chi Minh City police newspaper reported.
‘Danh owns a Facebook page with nearly 168,000 followers and has got several anti-state posts, causing division of national unity,’ the report added.
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Vietnamese government has stepped up a crackdown on activists ahead of a key party congress in January next year. Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party tolerates little criticism.
Facebook, which serves about 60 million users in Vietnam as the main platform for both e-commerce and expressions of political dissent, is under constant government scrutiny.
Reuters had in November reported that Vietnam’s Communist government had threatened to shut down Facebook in the country if it did not bow to government pressure to censor more local political content on its platform.
Vietnam has been widely rebuked by international communities for its tough moves to curb online dissent as public appetite for the Internet soars and Web users turn to blogs to read about issues that state-controlled media avoids.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK