Minister asks for Facebook’s cooperation to stop bad content

The request was made by Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan during a working session with a Facebook delegation led by head of global policy management Monika Bickert in Hanoi on April 26.

Tuan said better cooperation is necessary to stop bad content, hate speech, fake news, slanders, and articles that violate Vietnam’s law on this network.

He noted Vietnam has recorded rapid development in telecommunications and information technology. Nearly 70 percent of its population have accessed the Internet while almost 50 percent are using Facebook.

However, fake Facebook accounts have appeared, creating many posts that incite violence, insult other people and run counter to Vietnam’s law. Notably, some impostor accounts with the names of Vietnamese Party and State leaders have posted bad and toxic information, he added.

The minister stressed that the Vietnamese Government always provides the best possible conditions for social networks, including Facebook, to develop. He also highly valued this network’s recent cooperation.

Monika Bickert said Facebook is ready to cooperate with the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) and the Government of Vietnam to comply with the country’s legal regulations.

Facebook has designed tools to help users detect and report bad and toxic information so that the group can address it soon, she noted.

She pledged Facebook will continue coordination to stop posts that are harmful or violate Vietnam’s law.

At the working session, the two sides discussed how to create a healthy and safe social network environment in Vietnam. They agreed to prioritise removing fake news and impostor accounts, especially those using the names of senior Party and State leaders of the country.

They will also work together to organise training courses for small- and medium-sized enterprises and startups to help boost local economic development.

Facebook will set up a specific channel to directly work with the MoIC so as to deal with requirements from Vietnamese ministries and authorised agencies. It is also ready to help state agencies know-how to use Facebook to effectively disseminate the Party and State’s policies to the public, Bickert said.

In an effort to create a healthy internet environment, in December 2016, the MoIC issued Circular 38/2016/TT-BTTTT, which took effect on February 15, 2017, stipulating the cross-border provision of public information. It proactively asked to have talks with Google and Facebook, which have a large number of Vietnamese users.

From February to April 2017, the ministry negotiated and worked with Google to block and remove posts that infringe Vietnam’s law on YouTube.-