Government agrees to drop 'internet business leads to jail'

The document drafted by the agency submitted to the National Assembly has removed the crime of providing illegal services on computer networks, telecommunications... which was regulated in 2015.

On the morning of October 3, the National Assembly Standing Committee held its 4th session to give opinions on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the 2015 Penal Code. According to the report presented by Minister of Justice - Le Thanh Long on behalf of the Government, this draft law has removed Article 292 (crime of providing illegal services on computer networks and telecommunications networks).

Minister Le Thanh Long said that recently, the amendment and supplementation of Article 292 has received many different opinions. Among them, many people believe that the above crime should be completely eliminated, because the Penal Code has removed the crime of intentionally violating State regulations and the crime of illegal business to include other regulations. Moreover, in the list of conditional business lines, there are up to 267 occupations, it is unreasonable to only stipulate that online business is subject to criminal penalties, while the rest are not.

According to Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long, after receiving and editing the draft to amend and supplement a number of articles of the 2015 Penal Code, Article 292 has been officially removed. Photo: VPQH

Examining the draft law amendment submitted by the Government, the National Assembly's Judicial Committee said that the majority of opinions agreed with the removal of Article 292. However, the Chairwoman of the Judicial Committee - Le Thi Nga also said that there were opinions suggesting retaining it and including it in corresponding programs (for example, banning gold trading in accounts in Decree 24; illegal multi-level marketing in Decree 45...) on the internet due to its high nature and level of danger, which is difficult to overcome.

Previously, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) had sent a document to the National Assembly Standing Committee to remove Article 292 of the 2015 Penal Code due to concerns about many consequences for economic relations. VCCI believes that this law is not suitable for the way of doing business in the information sector, especially new services, start-ups...

The organization also proposed decriminalizing the provision of unlicensed services for e-commerce trading floors, online games, payment intermediaries and other services, including websites, social networks, and content services on telecommunications networks.

At the regular meeting in August, the Prime Minister and members of the Government also agreed to remove this law during discussion.

According to VNE