Regions

The Vietnam government proposed a possible prohibition of  free Internet chat applications. The said ban, according to State media, is to protect the country's network providers.

"We will lose 40-50 percent of our revenue if all of our 40 million customers use Viber instead of traditional call and text," a representative of Viettel Telcom reportedly told the State Media.

Based on figures from Google, with 17 million Smartphone users in Vietnam, the demand is huge with about 60 million users under 30 years old.

Japan's Line app developer, NHN,  said a ban is highly unlikely. "The government has more options, like cooperation between OTT and network providers," said CEO Jong Buhm Park in a Reuters report.

According to an anonymous diplomat, "This looks like an additional step from the government to censor internet users. Once it can't control them, it will block everything," he said.

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