Vietnam Threatens to Shut Down Facebook Over Content: Reuters

John Boudreau, Bloomberg News

A worker looks at a smartphone while watering plants on a street in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2018. A global trade recovery and Vietnam’s young and low-cost workforce have been magnets for international investors like Nestle SA, which have opened factories in the country this year. That’s helping underpin its economy, which expanded 6.8 percent in 2017, among the fastest in the world. Photographer: Ore Huiying/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Vietnam’s government has threatened to shut down Facebook Inc. in the country because it has failed to block more political content on its website, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified senior company official.

Facebook agreed to step up censorship of anti-government posts in April, the official said, according to Reuters. The government in August made another request for the company to block content critical of the state, it said.

“Over the past few months, we’ve faced additional pressure from the government to restrict more content,” Facebook said in an email statement. “However, we will do everything we can to ensure that our services remain available so people can continue to express themselves.”

Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Updates the story with Facebook comment in the third paragraph.)