Identifying users of social networks is the latest move that Vietnam is attempting to make for thorough handling of fake news.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) said in 2021 it will continue adjust regulations on social networks and fake news.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung. Photo: Hoang Phong

“The ministry will issue a code of conduct on the Internet, including the requirement to identify social network users with an aim to hold them accountable for their online activities,” Information and Communications Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said at an interpellation of the on-going National Assembly plenum earlier this week.

According to Mr. Hung, the upcoming code of conduct that regulates the use of netizens in the country having 70% of Internet users will be signed off by the end of this year. It was submitted to the government in April.

Cooperation from Facebook, Google

Vietnam has long required Facebook and Google to identify users that post violating entries and videos on Facebook and YouTube.

In 2019, the MIC insisted that Facebook reveal identity of users in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City after the social platform did not remove some content at the request of the ministry. Facebook claimed that the content did not violate its policies.

The ministry has asked Facebook to verify the identity of users and only the accounts with verifiable identities will be allowed to make livestream.

It has also requested Facebook to accelerate the authentication of fan pages of some organizations and individuals.

In addition, Facebook has been required to remove advertisements that distribute fake news on political matters. 

Fake news

Mr. Hung said fake news appears mostly on transnational platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

Vietnam has established the Cyber Monitoring Center to defend “national sovereignty” in cyberspace and asked transnational platform providers to comply with Vietnam’s law.

The center is capable of settling roughly 300 million posts per day to analyze and classify them, besides holding hotlines for reporting of fake news.

The ministry has increasingly asked Facebook and Google to remove toxic information. In 2020, the quantity of harmful news removed from Facebook rocketed 30 times from that in 2017, the number of violating videos deleted from YouTube is eight times that in 2017 while the number of fake sites removed in 2020 jumped eight times from that in 2017.

Taxation

The MIC alleged that Facebook and other social networking sites are making increasing profits from Vietnam, and a large part of this comes from illegal advertising on videos and websites.

Vietnam is home to nearly 61 million Facebook users as of January 2020, according to NapoleonCat.

Mr. Hung said his ministry is collaborating with the State Bank of Vietnam and the Ministry of Finance to ask cross-border platform providers to pay tax for their operations in Vietnam.

Currently, four giant tech firms namely Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple are reaping billions of dollars in revenues in Vietnam without fulfilling tax obligations.