Monday, Feb 27, 2006    Text size: 

As of Monday afternoon, the site was inaccessible.

Vietnam's communist government uses a firewall to block thousands of websites — mostly foreign-based — that have adult or “controversial” content.

In an official response, Nguyen Thanh Hai, chief inspector of Vietnam's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, said, “This site has been removed forever for having depraved pornographic information on it.” He also said that the site’s owner has been fined the U.S. equivalent of $800.

Censors discovered the straight online site in a probe of Hanoi attorney Vu Thai Ha after he tried to register the domain names Sex.com.vn and XXX.com.vn. The Vietnam Internet Network Information Center (VNNIC) rejected the names last month.

After Ha failed to register the domain names, the VNNIC decided to look into what other websites he might have registered. A list of domain names led to the “000” site and when inspectors opened the site they were surprised to find pornography, Hai said.

“The depraved photographs were not Vietnamese women, but foreign women in many different positions,” a VNNIC inspector said.