Freedom House again distorts the truth in Vietnam

Report "turning white into black"

Accordingly, the report released on October 18 by Freedom House concluded that Vietnam does not have Internet freedom, scoring only 22 points on a 100-point scale, including 12 points for the category of "obstacles to access", 6 points for "content restrictions" and 4 points for "violation of user rights".

It is worth mentioning that since the explosive growth of the Internet in the world, this US-funded non-profit organization has continuously ranked Vietnam in the group of countries without Internet freedom. This is the third consecutive year that Freedom House has misrepresented Vietnam with a score of 22/100, and the seventh consecutive year that this organization has said that Vietnam does not have Internet freedom.

Freedom House's assessment of Internet freedom in Vietnam is worthless. Screenshot

Along with Vietnam, other countries are also ranked in the bottom group such as: China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Myanmar, Pakistan... The criteria for "scoring" are also "thought up" by this organization, based on the guise of human rights and freedom of speech; such as: blocking websites, pro-government accounts, cyber security control policies, prosecuting lawbreakers who are called "activists" by hostile forces...

The Freedom House report summarizes events that took place between June 2021 and May 2022 on the Internet situation in Vietnam. It falsely claims that the government ordered international social media companies to remove thousands of pieces of content, especially targeting criticism of state officials; that the authorities imposed prison sentences on human rights defenders and Internet users for their online activities, including a 10-year prison sentence for activist Trinh Ba Phuong...

Previously, in June 2022, in the report on “Protecting Democracy in Exile”, Freedom House also blatantly distorted that Vietnam is one of the countries that “carries out transnational repression to silence activists even when they leave their homeland”; “conducts cyberattacks on organizations that support Vietnamese refugees and promote human rights”; “harasses, bans exit or confiscates passports of “democrats”…

Obviously, the above reports from Freedom House are worthless.

Access to the Internet and social networks in Vietnam is very convenient. Photo: Document

In fact, Vietnam is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of Internet development. On this S-shaped strip of land, everyone uses the Internet, every household uses the Internet. Everyone is free to create an account on social networks and operate freely according to their own needs. Unlike many other countries, Vietnam does not block or prohibit any social network or any organization or individual from participating in the Internet. Technology companies (mainly US companies) such as Google (YouTube, Google), Meta (Facebook), ByteDance (TikTok) ... operate and develop strongly, earning a lot of profit from the Vietnamese market.

A trick in the strategy of peaceful evolution

Freedom House is a non-profit organization founded in October 1941. Its operations are funded primarily by the United States Government. The organization describes itself as “a clear voice for democracy and freedom around the world.” However, most countries and international organizations do not recognize its annual reports and assessments because they believe that the organization is biased toward the interests of the United States.

Along with Vietnam, many countries that oppose the United States are rated low on Internet freedom. Screenshot

Obviously, Freedom House’s reports are aimed at socialist countries and countries that are not allies of the United States. The organization’s assessments are based only on details and trivial situations, without assessing the whole situation. Therefore, for many years, Vietnam, China, Cuba, Russia, Iran… have been assessed as having no Internet freedom.

In fact, setting up non-profit organizations to assess the situation of a country is a trick inpeaceful evolution strategyof the imperialist countries. Therefore, we can easily see that organizations like this are linked together and have similar criteria for "scoring" and evaluating. Every year, at the scheduled time, these organizations release reports on all aspects of political, economic and social life of opposing countries. Most of the assessments are low and based on the guise of human rights, freedom and democracy. And follow the reports and comments from opposing news sites such as VOA, RFA and the accounts of reactionary organizations, terrorists and exiled elements.

People need to be vigilant when receiving information from opposition news sites. Photo for illustration purposes only.

All of the above tricks have the same purpose: to lower and damage the image of Vietnam and its opponents. From there, they attract countries and organizations that do not cooperate or refuse to have relations in order to isolate Vietnam. In the long term, from annual reports, they create a fake database, fake evidence, and when there is an opportunity, they use it as an excuse to interfere in our country's internal affairs.

These are very insidious and cunning acts, everyone needs to raise their awareness when receiving information./.