Telegram is set to be banned in Vietnam because it is allegedly being used for nefarious activities. Foreign firms should see this as a reminder of the often arbitrary and unpredictable nature of Vietnam’s digital regulatory environment.
Last week, at the behest of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), Vietnam’s Department of Telecommunications advised Vietnamese internet service providers, via an official letter, that they had until June 2 to “deploy solutions and measures to prevent Telegram’s activities in Vietnam.”
The move, the letter claimed, was justified by the proliferation of content on the platform that the MPS had deemed illegal.
“Many associations and groups with tens of thousands of participants were created by opposition and reactionary subjects, spreading anti-government documents,” it read.
It also went on to cite the platform being used for fraud, the trade in personal data, and drugs, as well as terrorism, claiming that of 9,600 Telegram groups in Vietnam, as many as 68 percent were suspected of breaking the law.
But is banning Telegram really the solution to this problem? Moreover, is it worth the risk?
That is to say, for one, it’s not just used for illegal activities.
It’s first and foremost a messaging app. People use it for e-commerce, remote and freelance work, it’s popular among crypto and fintech startups, not to mention for general everyday banter. Blocking the platform won’t just disrupt the drug trade and anti-state propaganda but will likely disrupt legitimate businesses too.
The costs, however, won’t stop there.
Technically speaking, it will take a lot of work and resources to block access to Telegram successfully.
In 2016, Facebook was taken offline after it was used to organise protests over the dumping of chemicals by Formosa in Ha Tinh, which killed huge numbers of fish. This, however, was done with a simple DNS block, which tech-savvy users were quickly and relatively easily able to circumvent by simply changing their DNS settings.
There are, of course, more effective methods, but these also come with bigger price tags and require ongoing monitoring and maintenance.
It’s not clear who would pay for this either–the MPS has requested it, but it would be up to the Department of Telecommunications, presumably, to enforce.
Moreover, it’s been estimated that Vietnam is headed for a shortage of 700,000 cybersecurity workers by 2028, so even if there were sufficient funds, there may not be the workers to do the work.
That aside, assuming that it can be implemented and policed, how effective can it really be?
Telegram will be the first messaging app banned in Vietnam. That leaves bad actors with hundreds, maybe even thousands, of other options.
And it’s not like Telegram was the sole source of online criminal activity to begin with.
Notably, Facebook and homegrown messaging app Zalo have both been implicated in a broad number of scams and nefarious activities.
All of that said, it may be that banning Telegram is actually a shot across the bow for other cross-border service providers. A reminder that a failure to comply with government digital services regulations can see firms denied market access.
This would fit with past efforts to take action against cross-border service providers. TikTok, for example, was investigated in 2023.
This may, however, have other unintended consequences, sending the message that Vietnam is not quite as open for business as it may otherwise present itself to be.
This is particularly interesting in the current trade climate, in which Vietnam is facing a 46 percent tariff on its exports to the US. This amount, the US has argued, is reflective of non-tariff barriers to entry for US firms that want to do business in Vietnam.
Among the barriers cited by the US in its 2025 National Trade Estimate Report – the backbone of the US’s claim – is controlled online content and enforced server localisation, as well as potential fines, bandwidth throttling, and blocking for violations.
It’s probably worth noting, too, that Telegram is particularly popular among Trump supporters, and Trump has historically been outspoken on his belief in free speech.
External implications aside, domestically, this doesn’t bode well for Vietnam’s digital economy ambitions either.
Vietnam’s National Digital Transformation Program aims to see the “digital economy” account for 30 percent of Vietnam’s GDP by 2030. Notably, it has introduced a number of policies, including tax incentives, infrastructure investment, and support for digital startups, to drive this transformation.
It is, however, difficult to see tech entrepreneurs responding well to being told which messaging apps they can and can’t use. Not only that, but it’s unlikely firms will make themselves at home in an environment where they can be shut down based on the actions of their users.
And this is really the crux of the issue. The bad actors using Telegram to break the law are not being punished. They are free to go elsewhere and keep on doing what they’re doing.
Instead, the medium, the Telegram messaging application, has become the target.
This is problematic for Telegram and its users obviously, but it also reinforces more broadly the risks in operating in Vietnam’s digital environment, including in the communications technologies firms choose to use.