UN treaty signing highlights Vietnam’s curb on online dissent

The Cybercrime Convention will further entrench control and surveillance over peaceful expression of dissent online beyond the borders of repressive states.

Vietnam’s longstanding record of cracking down on online dissent makes it a fitting host for the signing ceremony of the deeply flawed United Nations Convention against Cybercrime. State representatives convening in Hanoi on October 25 should understand that without adequate human rights safeguards, this new treaty risks being used by rights-abusing governments to facilitate repression beyond their borders. Vietnam’s leaders already see the convention as another weapon in their arsenal to crush dissent.

A major problem with the Cybercrime Convention is that it obligates governments to establish broad electronic surveillance powers to collect and share evidence with foreign authorities for any “serious crime,” defined as an offense punishable by at least four years in prison under domestic law.

But many governments have laws with stiff penalties that criminalize activities protected under international human rights law, such as peaceful protest, online dissent, same-sex relationships, investigative journalism, and whistleblowing. The treaty has inadequate safeguards to protect people from abuse of power in the name of cross-border cooperation. No wonder authoritarian governments like Russia, China, and Vietnam are enthusiastically embracing the new treaty.

Vietnam’s president has welcomed the new Cybercrime Convention as a valuable tool to counter any threat that “endangers security, undermines political and economic stability, and disrupts social life.”

In Vietnam, the authorities typically use laws to censor and silence any online expression of views critical of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the country’s political leadership. For instance, in June 2024, the prominent journalist Truong Huy San, known as Huy Duc, posted on social media about the growing political power of the Vietnamese police. Days later, police arrested and charged Huy Duc with violating a vague criminal provision on “abusing the rights to democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State.”

Vietnamese authorities have commonly used this provision, which carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison, to target critics of the government. Huy Duc was sentenced to 30 months in prison – where he remains today.

Huy Duc’s case demonstrates how the Vietnamese authorities treat online dissent within Vietnam. The Cybercrime Convention will expand the ability of authorities in Vietnam and other countries to obtain digital evidence for such “serious crimes” beyond their reach. It obligates other states party to the convention to provide the “measure of mutual legal assistance” in investigations and prosecutions without ensuring that assistance will not be provided in situations that facilitate repression.

Additionally, the convention could be used to assert more aggressive jurisdiction over multinational companies that are currently outside a country’s jurisdiction and hold sensitive digital information.

While such tools were not necessary for Vietnamese courts to convict Huy Duc, having broader access to information like digital payments, search results, or IP addresses, as evidence of serious crimes could be a factor in future similar prosecutions.

During the first nine months of 2025, Vietnamese courts convicted and sentenced at least 35 dissidents and activists to lengthy prison terms because of posts or livestreams they had made on internet platforms criticizing government actions or policies.

Vietnam’s 2018 Law on Cybersecurity uses vague and overbroad language to criminalize online criticism or opposition to the government. It prohibits content deemed “propaganda against the state,” including criticism of the government, its leaders, or official national heroes. It requires internet providers to deny service to, censor, and inform the government about people who publish prohibited content.

A 2024 decree further regulates the use and provision of internet services and online information to quell online expression the government rejects. The decree requires social media platforms operating in Vietnam to store user data, provide that data to the authorities on demand, and take down within 24 hours anything the authorities consider “illegal content.”

Governments need to recognize that the Cybercrime Convention will further entrench control and surveillance over peaceful expression of dissent online beyond the borders of repressive states.

States should not sign or ratify this treaty. Those already committed to signing should demonstrate the concrete human rights safeguards they have put in place to implement the convention’s terms in a manner that fully respect human rights.

Officials visiting Hanoi for the treaty signing should use the opportunity to press Vietnam’s leadership to release Huy Duc and others held in violation of their free expression rights, and to repeal or revise the laws that criminalize peaceful online dissent to bring them in line with international standards.

By Elaine Pearson & Deborah Brown – Human Rights Watch – October 24, 2025