Kevin
Collier - The Daily Dot
January
16, 2013
Vietnam's
ruling Communist Party isn't just imprisoning dissenting bloggers.
It's
also employing nearly a thousand "public opinion shapers" to fight
their ideas online.
Though
it's long been suspected, the BBC has reported
that Ho Quang Loi, Hanoi's head of Propaganda and Education Department, has
admitted the existence of a small army of Internet commenters and bloggers who
spend hours each day typing their support for the regime.
Loi
said the "Internet polemicists" promote government policies,
discourage pro-democracy protests, and help stop negative rumors.
Vietnam,
considered an "Enemy of the Internet" in an annual Reporters Without
Borders report, has recently increased its already severe
crackdown on citizens who use the Internet to voice dissent. In late December,
two bloggers convicted of "conducting propaganda against the
state"—both support the pro-Democracy Viet Tan party and ran blogs about
topics like police corruption and Vietnam's relationship with China—were denied leniency and instead must serve out a
combined 22-year sentence.
On
Jan. 9, a mass trial of Viet Tan supporters convicted 14 citizens for
"activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government." Most of
their crimes were Internet-related, and included dissident blogging, linking to
anti-government material, and teaching digital security.
Loi
said that his polemicists have been effective, citing the fact that public
protests in Hanoi fell sharply from 2011 to 2012.
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