Vietnam social media users hit by 'expanding crackdown' on dissent: Human Rights Watch

Vietnam targets social media users criticizing the state, expanding crackdown on dissent, leading to harsh prison terms, HRW reports.

Vietnam is targeting ordinary social media users for posts criticising the state in an expanding crackdown on dissent, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday (April 22, 2025).

Vietnam, a one-party state, has long sentenced bloggers and human rights activists to hefty jail terms, but now even those with no appreciable public profiles risk arrest if they voice a grievance against communist party officials, HRW said in a report.

Members of the public are being targeted through an expansion of the scope of article 331 of the penal code, which centres on the "infringement of state interests", the report says.

Between 2018 and February 2025, Vietnamese courts convicted and sentenced at least 124 people to harsh prison terms under article 331, according to HRW.

In the six years to 2017, only 28 were sentenced under equivalent laws, the report said.

Vietnamese authorities "abuse the... law not only to silence prominent activists and whistleblowers, but to retaliate against ordinary people who complain about poor services or police abuse," said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"Article 331 is the government's handy tool to infringe upon the basic rights of Vietnamese citizens."