Otto's War Room (毛派): Vietnam allows internet access to radical left blogs like this one

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Vietnam allows internet access to radical left blogs like this one

Of all the countries left that are run by communist parties, Maoist websites, as mine, seem to get more hits from Vietnam than any others. Otto’s War Room has had more than 233 from Vietnam over the last year and a half.

The Kasama Project reported its milestone of “4.5 million page views on our site since its beginning in December 2007 (a little over four years ago).”

From Vietnam they had 213 hits.

Most people are aware that China has a fire wall to keep certain web sites from being accessed by their citizens. So it is no surprise that I had only 1 hit from China in the same amount of time as the hits from Vietnam. My web site has been very critical of Deng Xiaoping and the changes he brought to China. I don’t consider China to be Maoist today so it is no surprise I haven’t been getting many hits from that country. A few years ago I got more than 100. So where did they go? My site is probably not considered “China friendly” anymore.

Recently the Pope visited Cuba and many in the mainstream press are claiming that Cuba has denied access of computers and the internet to its citizens.

Mary Murray, from NBC News;

“On Thursday, Cuba authorized the unrestricted sale of computers, DVD and video players and other appliances in a move that's being seen as an effort by Cuba's new leader, Raul Castro, to appease some of the grumbling by residents of the island.
Cuban consumers have complained for years that there is not much here to buy.
The sale in government-run stores of most electrical appliances and electronics have been carefully controlled for years – in many cases restricting their sale to foreigners and Cuba's diplomatic community.”
So it is not surprising that I only got one hit from Cuba over the last year and a half. I haven’t been very critical of Cuba, but I do promote a different vision of communism than they do in Cuba. Plus there just isn’t much access. The Kasama Project only got four hits from Cuba. Neither of our sites got hits from the Democratic People’s Republic of (North) Korea, although I got 200 hits from South Korea. I wouldn’t be surprised if some North Korean officials monitor web sites as mine from the south. My site has been more positive about the north than many other Marxist sites, including Kasama’s. But the North is very sensitive to ANY criticism, so they may have decided to keep my site from their people anyway. I didn’t notice any hits on Kasama from North Korea.
I got 79 hits from Nepal, but it is still a multi-party state, so that is no surprise. Kasama got 544 hits from that country. I also only got about 1 hit from Laos.
So is Vietnam a more open country to outside blogs and different views on politics? In 2010 a malware attack was launched against some dissidence bloggers and websites in Vietnam and the mainstream press here seem to blame it on the government.
In October of 2010 MSNBC reported;
“Political bloggers in Vietnam are under a round of cyberattacks designed to block their websites, a sign of the widening use of targeted hacking to stifle government dissent worldwide, according to a new analysis by U.S. computer experts.”
Viet Nam officials strongly denied such an attack. According to Bo Ngoai Giao Viet Nam;
“Malware Targeted at Vietnamese Computers Users Groundless Comments

In response to question from the media concerning Vietnam’s reaction to comments on Google Online Security Blog that malware has targeted at Vietnamese computers users, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Nga on 3 April 2010, 2010 said:

"Such comments are groundless.

We have on many occasions clearly expounded our view on issues relating to access to and use of information and information technology, including the Internet. Vietnam law puts in place specific regulations against computer virus and malware as well as on information security and confidentiality."