The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) exercises absolute control over the media. Increasingly aware of the restrictions imposed on the official media and their self-censorship, Laotians are turning to social media. The adoption in late 2014 of a decree providing for jail sentences for Internet users who criticize the government and the Marxist-Leninist LPRP threatens the boom in online news and information platforms. Three of the 40 or so TV channels are privately-owned but that falls far short of addressing the lack of media pluralism in Laos.