Vietnamese firms shun YouTube ads amid gov't pressure

By Bennett Murray

HANOI, Vietnam (AA) - Companies operating in Vietnam have agreed to pull ads from YouTube in the wake of government threats to fine the site over content deemed illegal by the authorities.

State-owned airline Vietnam Airlines and the partially privatized Vinamilk food producer, the country’s largest public company by market capitalization, are among the local firms to have pulled its ads, the government’s Vietnam Investment Review newspaper reported Friday.

“We have demanded our partner to work with Youtube to stop running our ads in illegal videos,” read a statement from Vinamilk to the government’s Ministry of Information and Communications.

“Furthermore, we are suspending any advertising on the platform until our media partner and YouTube manage to resolve the issue,” it continued.

The Vietnamese government has recently claimed that YouTube features “offensive, violent, and subversive” videos in violation of local law and has threatened to punish local companies that continue to advertise on the site.

The authorities have said it will fine YouTube, although it has not yet stated the demanded sum.

In addition to accusations that sexual and violent content on the site violate Vietnamese law, the government has also said that material on YouTube “distorts history” and encourages “national revenge”, terms often used by the authorities in reference to viewpoints critical of the ruling Communist Party.

Anti-government activists such as the Viet Tan, a banned political party based in California that calls for the overthrow of the communist state, collectively host hundreds of videos on the site.

But YouTube, which is currently unblocked in Vietnam, is also used by state-sanctioned Vietnamese broadcasters and millions of Vietnamese netizens.

Google, YouTube's parent company, didn't respond immediately for comment.