Vietnamese Social Media Platform Fined, Suspended Over Vague ‘Violations’
The move comes amid a further government tightening of controls over news and
information sharing online.
RFA | 2021-05-10
Vietnamese authorities have temporarily closed one of the country’s social media
platforms, fining the business over $4,000 and revoking its license for eight
months in a move further tightening government control over the sharing of
information online, state media sources say.
VNbrands.vn, belonging to the Vietnam Digital Brands Joint Stock Company, was
fined 105 million Vietnamese dollars (U.S. $4,100) on May 7 by Vietnam’s
Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information for what authorities said
was an inadequate disclosure of service conditions and agreements on its
homepage.
VNbrands’ operating license was also suspended for eight months, media sources
said, adding that the company had further provided “insufficient or inaccurate”
information related to its license and owner’s name.
Over the past few years, Vietnam has tightened its controls over the sharing of
information on social media, with many users fined or even prosecuted and jailed
on charges of publishing “fake” or unverified information—especially concerning
the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Vietnam’s recent ruling Party Congress, which
elected the country’s new leadership group.
In 2020, Vietnam’s Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information and
Hanoi’s and Ho Chi Minh City’s Departments of Information and Communications
levied administrative fines of over VND 700 million in over 37 cases of
violations, official sources said.
With Vietnam’s media following Communist Party orders, “the only sources of
independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists, who
are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution,” the press freedoms
watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says in its 2021 Press Freedoms Index.
Measures taken against them now include fines, jailings, and assaults by
plainclothes police, RSF said in its report, which placed Vietnam at 175 out of
180 countries surveyed worldwide, a ranking unchanged from last year’s.
In northeastern Vietnam’s Bac Giang province meanwhile, authorities summoned a
young user of the TikTok video-sharing service, fining him VND 3.7 million (less
than U.S. $200) for wrapping himself in the Vietnamese national flag as a stunt
to attract viewers, state media sources reported on May 5.
Identified by media sources as “H.V.K.,” the resident of Bac Giang’s Luc Ngan
district told district police he had joined TikTok in June 2020 and had already
gained over 100,000 followers and 1.4 million likes on his account.
He had used the flag as a prop in filming a video, he said, and had taken the
video down after receiving a torrent of criticism online.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English
by Richard Finney
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