Vietnam on Wednesday announced stricter punishments for those who use social media to circulate "fake news".
According to the new decree, a fine of 10-20 million dong ($426-$853) will be imposed on people who use social media to share false, untruthful, distorted, or slanderous information.
It comes as the country is struggling to stem the spread of misinformation around the novel coronavirus, with hundreds of people already slapped with fines.
Critics, however, pointed out that the new rule did not deal only with coronavirus-related material, and could be misused by the government to shut them out.
"This decree provides yet another potent weapon in the Vietnamese authorities' arsenal of online repression," said Tanya O'Carroll, Director of Tech at Amnesty International. "It contains a raft of provisions that blatantly violate Vietnam's international human rights obligations".
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday that four additional Typhoon fighter jets would be sent to Qatar amid the ongoing regional developments, insisting that the UK has the right plan for defence.
Azerbaijan warned on Thursday that it was preparing unspecified response measures after a pair of Iranian drones flew across its border and injured four people in the Nakhchivan exclave, raising concern about further spillover of the conflict in the Middle East.
Israel has warned residents to immediately leave a swathe of south Lebanon on Wednesday, ordering them to move north of Litani River on the third day of full-blown hostilities with Hezbollah, with the death toll rising to 72 people.
Nearly six months after a wave of unprecedented youth-led protests and the deaths of 77 people forced Nepal's then prime minister to quit, people began voting on Thursday in a general election that will choose a new parliament in the Himalayan nation.
More than 200 people have died on Tuesday in a landslide triggered by heavy rains at the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's mines ministry said on Wednesday.
The US–Iran war widened sharply on Wednesday after a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing at least 80 people, and NATO air defences destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile fired towards Turkey.
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British PM Starmer to send four Typhoon jets to Qatar
Bombing of Tehran intensifies as war enters day six
Azerbaijan vows to respond after four injured by Iranian drones
72 killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon as it warns residents to leave south
Nepal goes to the polls; voters seek change after youth-led protests
Landslide kills over 200 people at Congo's Rubaya mine
80 people killed after US sinks Iranian warship
Emergency GCC-EU meeting to discuss Iranian aggression
