Yahoo! Vietnam Accused of Violating Content Laws

Posted by Reading Time: < 1 minute

Aug. 1 – Yahoo! Vietnam has been accused by the Vietnam Software Association (Vinasa) of breaking digital content supply laws.

Vinasa says Yahoo! Vietnam had not obtained permission for its news website, www.yahoo.com.vn and is operating it illegally in the country.

It went on to say that Yahoo’s activities were competing with domestic IT and game companies. The company has been providing web services of Vietnamese versions of Yahoo!Messenger, Yahoo!Answers and Yahoo!Mail without Online Services Provider permission from the government.

The company is licensed to operate in the country only as a representative office and is not allowed to engage in direct trading activities.

Recently, Yahoo chose the advertising agents Admax, FPT Online Advertising, Gapit and Golden Communication Corporation to help sell online advertising space to the local market.

The company’s Vietnam domain is managed by its parent company under a domain name system (DNS) located abroad.

Yahoo! Vietnam general director, Vu Minh Tri, denies that the company had violated any law. He explained that the company had bought the domain name from the Vietnam internet Network Information Center and that site is run by Yahoo Singapore as its Vietnamese version.

Under Vietnamese law, it will take domestic companies years to offer similar online services as Yahoo because their content must be approved in accordance with Vietnamese culture.

“We want the game to be fair,” a Vinasa official told Thanh Nien news, “The business world is flat on the Internet. The government must take a different view when it comes to managing this kind of business so that our digital companies can continue flourishing.”