"On 21 April 2020, Facebook announced a major shift in its content moderation policy in Viet Nam. Under this policy, it has increasingly complied with the Vietnamese authorities’ repressive censorship of online expression deemed critical of the state.3 Facebook has disclosed that it agreed to “significantly increase” compliance with requests from the Vietnamese government to censor “anti-state” content in Viet Nam after concerted pressure from the Vietnamese authorities, including an enforced slowdown of Facebook services within the country. The Vietnamese government routinely deems peaceful and legitimate criticism of the government or information related to human rights abuses as “anti-state”, even though this type of expression is protected under international laws and standards. The decision by Facebook may have far-reaching global consequences, as other repressive governments around the world may now seek to apply a similar strategy by forcing Facebook and other technology companies to restrict online expression. As one industry observer noted: “How Google and Facebook deal with Viet Nam could offer clues to how they will protect user privacy and handle calls for censorship in other authoritarian regimes around the world.” Facebook’s decision has marked a sea change in the social media landscape in Viet Nam. Once the great hope for the expansion of freedom of expression in the country, social media platforms are fast becoming human rights–free zones, where any peaceful dissent or criticism of the Vietnamese government is liable to be censored and where users seeking to post such content face the risk of being suspended or otherwise barred from the platforms." (Executive summary)