Vietnamese Government Requires Social Media Companies To Handle “Fake” Content In Just 24 Hours

Vietnam's Minister of Information and Communication, Nguyen Manh Hung. (photo: https://industrial-transformation.com/)

JAKARTA - Vietnam's Information and Communications Minister said on Friday, November 4 that the country's authorities have tightened regulations to deal with "fake" content on social media platforms. Owners of social media platforms are required to remove fake content (hoaxes) within 24 hours, not 48 hours as before.

The new rules will perpetuate Vietnam's position as one of the most stringent regimes in the world in controlling social media companies and will strengthen the hand of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party when it comes to cracking down on "anti-state" activities.

Information and Communications Minister Nguyen Manh Hung told parliament there was a risk that "fake news, if handled slowly, will spread very widely."

Reuters had previously reported on the government's plans to include new regulations, as well as rules so that highly sensitive information must be removed within three hours.

Most governments don't have laws that enforce content removal on social media companies, but Vietnam's move comes amid increasing crackdowns in some parts of the world against online content.

According to Hung, the current penalty in Vietnam for posting and spreading misinformation is only a tenth of the rate imposed by its Southeast Asian counterparts.

"The ministry will propose to the government increasing the administrative fine to a level high enough to deter the public," Hung said.

Addressing the legislature, Hung proposed by 2023 to fully deal with "News," a term used by authorities to describe when people are misled into thinking that social media accounts are official news outlets.

Reuters reported in September that the government was preparing rules to limit which social media accounts can post news-related content.

Vietnam, which is a $1 billion market for Facebook, has tightened internet rules over the past few years. The highlight is the cybersecurity law that came into effect in 2019 and the national guidelines on social media behavior introduced in June last year.

Critics have raised concerns that the law could give authorities more power to crack down on dissidents.

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