Law on Cybersecurity: Strict Regulations for Network Service Providers?

At Point d Clause 2 Article 26 of the Draft Law on Cybersecurity stipulates:

“Domestic and foreign agencies and organizations providing services on cyberspace or owning information systems in Vietnam must store in Vietnam personal information of service users in Vietnam and critical data related to national security; establish headquarters or representative offices in Vietnam.”

Furthermore, in Article 26 of the Draft, many other obligations are also imposed on cyberspace service providers such as Facebook, Youtube,... To be specific: service providers will have to:

- Delete posted information on the network upon request of law enforcement agencies and keep logs of information to provide to competent authorities when requested;- Authenticate user information and provide it to competent authorities upon request;- Comply with all other requests from competent authorities.

Service providers will have to comply with all requirements from competent state agencies of Vietnam unconditionally.

Additionally, the information systems of these service providers will be subject to inspection at any time upon the request of state management agencies regarding cybersecurity.

With such strict conditions along with the fact that state agencies can access the entire system data of service providers, is there any guarantee that social networks like Facebook or Youtube will continue to operate in Vietnam in the near future?

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