The Framework

Vietnam’s Decree 147/2024, effective December 25, 2024, mandates that social media platforms with monthly traffic exceeding 100,000 visits implement mandatory user authentication through Vietnamese phone numbers or national identification cards, store user data locally within Vietnam, and provide authorities with access to internal search engines for content identification.^[1] The regulation forces platforms to remove content deemed “illegal” within 24 hours of government notification, comply with requests from the Ministry of Information and Communications and Ministry of Public Security for user data, and remove over 90 percent of flagged content upon management agency requests.^[2] Platforms face substantial penalties for non-compliance, including potential service blocking for repeat violations, and must maintain Vietnamese user data for a minimum of 24 months under accompanying data localization requirements.^[3] Users have 90 days to comply with authentication requirements or lose the ability to post, comment, share, or livestream on designated platforms.^[4]

Implications for U.S. Technology Leadership

Vietnam’s content moderation framework systematically disadvantages U.S. technology companies that dominate the Vietnamese digital landscape, forcing them to restructure operations and allocate significant resources to regulatory compliance rather than innovation. Facebook, with approximately 65 million Vietnamese users, and Google’s YouTube platform face the heaviest burden under these requirements, as they represent the primary targets of government censorship demands.^[5] Facebook’s compliance costs have escalated dramatically, with the platform restricting 834 pieces of content in the latest reporting period—a 983 percent increase from the previous period—while Facebook and Google now comply with 95 percent and 90 percent of government censorship requests, respectively.^[6] The authentication and data localization mandates require these American platforms to establish local infrastructure, hire compliance teams, and implement costly user verification systems that drain resources from product development and global expansion initiatives. Furthermore, the requirement to grant Vietnamese authorities access to internal search engines exposes proprietary algorithmic systems and operational methods to government scrutiny.

These regulatory burdens create competitive advantages for platforms that operate below Vietnam’s traffic thresholds or can more easily absorb compliance costs through state backing. Chinese platforms and domestic Vietnamese alternatives benefit from this asymmetric treatment, as they face fewer immediate pressures to comply with extensive authentication requirements while established U.S. leaders allocate substantial engineering and legal resources to meet Vietnamese specifications. The fragmentation of content moderation requirements across different markets forces American companies to develop multiple compliance frameworks simultaneously, undermining operational efficiencies that have historically enabled their global dominance. Vietnam’s substantial market size—with Facebook generating nearly $1 billion in revenue and Google earning $475 million primarily from YouTube advertising as of 2018—makes non-compliance economically unfeasible, effectively compelling U.S. platforms to accept restrictive terms or pay hefty fines that weaken their competitive position.^[7]

Endnotes