Apple’s Transparency Report has revealed that 5,064 apps originating in Vietnam were removed from the Apple App Store last year, mostly because they were believed to be involved in fraudulent activities. This was down from 8,000 last year.
Of note, just one app was also removed in 2023 for breaching Vietnam’s Cybersecurity Law. This law requires cross border service providers like streaming sites and online video game distributors to open local offices and store data locally. That said, with just one takedown request for the whole of last year (for comparison in China it was 1,285) enforcing this law in Vietnam looks to be shaping up as somewhat of a challenge.
That said, the strategy does seem to be to tackle the highest profile companies in the hopes that it will deter others. Gaming platform, Steam, for example, was taken off line in Vietnam earlier this year and Netflix was told to remove the video games it offers back in April.
See also: Video Games in Vietnam: Cheat Sheet 2024