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Have you ever used social media to complain about an issue that bothers you? Maybe you posted about police abuse in your country or a sociopolitical issue, like a poverty problem.
In Vietnam, there is a good chance, you might be convicted and jailed for it.
Le Minh The discussed sociopolitical issues including economic development, corruption, poverty, and land rights on social media. Voicing his opinions got him 21 months in prison between 2018-2020.
In 2023, he was arrested again, convicted, and sentenced to two years in prison, also for criticizing the authorities.
His younger sister, Le Thi Binh, also served two years in prison between 2020-2022 for “posting, livestreaming, and sharing” content that “defames” the state’s policies.
This all happens under Article 331 of Vietnam’s penal code, the “infringing of state interests” law. The law is being abused by Vietnamese authorities to punish people simply for raising concerns or complaints about government policies or local officials.
In the past, people who were convicted under the law were often bloggers or human rights activists - those the government sought to silence but were not considered threats to the Communist Party’s monopoly on power. They were convicted of crimes considered less serious than crimes against national security.
Now, article 331 of the penal code is increasingly used by the government to target ordinary people who complain about the government or voice opinions, just like Le Minh The did.
Human Rights Watch found that authorities have enlarged the scope and application of article 331 so that it reaches much further into society. As a result, ordinary people face arrest and up to seven years in prison for criticizing low-level officials.
The escalation in arrests and convictions is measurable. HRW examined dozens of Vietnamese court documents, numerous media sources, and hundreds of posts and videos on social media.
Between 2018 and February 2025, Vietnamese courts convicted and sentenced at least 124 people to harsh prison terms under article 331. This is a significant increase over the previous six-year period (2011-2017), when only 28 people were reportedly convicted and sentenced to prison for violating the predecessor to article 331.
Social media and other means to publicly raise issues like religious freedom, land rights, rights of Indigenous people, and corruption of the Vietnamese government are not infringing upon state interests. Rather, Article 331 has become the government’s handy tool to infringe upon the basic rights of Vietnamese citizens.
The authorities should immediately end the systemic repression, and release everyone detained or imprisoned for exercising their basic rights.
