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The Hanoitimes - Foreign digital content providers in Vietnam have some payment options. Facebook and Google are likely required to pay tax in Vietnam after years of operations in the country without fulfilling their tax obligation as claimed by the Vietnamese government. Percentage of new digital consumers out of total service consumers in Southeast Asia countries. Source: Google, Temasek, Bain & Company The foreign digital content providers might make tax payment online via taxation department’s portal or through authorized agents following the Ministry of Finance’s Draft Circular, which is made available for public consultation. Under Vietnamese rules, foreign firms, which have no fixed business facilities in Vietnam but provide e-commerce services and digital-based business with local partner, are regarded as having residential offices in Vietnam. Accordingly, Facebook, Google, or Netflix are subject to the new regulation. With the new regulation, tax agency will provide tax code and payment options, including direct payment or via authorized agents to foreign taxpayers. So far, a number of foreign e-commerce providers and technology firms working in Vietnam like Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, Netflix (the US), iflix (Malaysia), WeTV, iQiYi, Alibaba (China) make good profit worth billion dollars. Speaking at an interpellation at the National Assembly in November 2020, Vietnam’s Minister of Information and Communications (MIC) Nguyen Manh Hung said Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple earned billions of dollars in Vietnam but paid no tax. The situation has prompted some actions by the MIC and the Ministry of Finance. Vietnam’s Internet economy is expected to reach US$14 billion in 2020 and likely US$52 billion by 2025 with a 29% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to the “e-Conomy SEA 2020” report by Google, Temasek, Bain & Company. Vietnam's Internet economy likely doubles in 2025. …

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The Hanoitimes - Vietnam has long requested foreign social media platforms to restrict content that it considers potentially toxic and harmful to its interests. Vietnam has advanced the fight against toxic content on the cyber space, with the quantity of violating content removed from Facebook and Google so far this year hitting a record high. Facebook users in Vietnam in January 2020. Source: NapoleonCat As of October 2020, Facebook removed 2,036 articles, up 500% from that in 2019, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) said in a recent report sent to the National Assembly. Facebook has removed 286 accounts that falsify profiles of the country’s leaders and disseminate fake news that incites subversion of state power, causes hostile, and defames the leaders, according to the report. To give a hand to the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, Facebook has removed 100% of fake news related to the global health crisis, including 11 accounts forging the Ministry of Health and 141 entries distorting the situation in Vietnam. The rate by Google has reached 90% so far this year. In the first three quarter of 2020, Google’s YouTube has blocked and removed 10,877 videos out of 24,617 violating items from 2017 to September 2020. In another move, between July 2017 and September 2020, Google has blocked access to 24 out of 62 YouTube channels that contain 11,212 defiant videos. Apple Inc., meanwhile, has required app distributors on digital distribution platform App Store to get license by Vietnam’s authorities for their products. As a result, as many as 28 unlicensed and violating games have been removed at the MIC's request. The ministry attributed the results to its requesting Facebook and Google to follow Vietnam’s law in monitoring, minimizing, blocking and removing fake, harmful, defamatory, offensive or objectionable information. In addition, disseminators of fake news in Vietnam have been strictly punished by the …

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The Hanoitimes - Vietnam will watch how Facebook fulfills its commitment to complying with Vietnamese law. Facebook must comply with Vietnamese law and should cooperate with the government in creating a secure and healthy environment, a spokeperson has said. IT companies like Facebook are required to comply with Vietnamese law As a foreign-invested company operating in Vietnam, Facebook has commited to complying with Vietnamese law and the government of Vietnam will see how its commitments are fulfilled, Deputy Spokesperson of Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ngo Toan Thang said at a press conference on April 23. Vietnam has developed digital infrastructure to facilitate the operations of foreign companies and supports them in terms of telecommunications on the condition that they abide by Vietnam’s law and fulfil all tax obligations and social responsibilities, the official noted. “IT companies should cooperate with the government in creating safe and healthy environment,” Thang said in answering a question by DPA on whether Facebook is required to limit access to contents that are deemed illegal in Vietnam. On April 21, Reuters reported that Facebook’s local servers in Vietnam were taken offline early this year, slowing local traffic to a crawl until it agreed to significantly increase the censorship of “anti-state” posts for local users. Vietnam has more than 65 million Facebook users who use this social network as the main platform for both e-commerce and expressions of political dissent, Reuters added. …

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