Regulation Of News Posts
Vietnam which already exercises significant control over the internet has an aversion to dissent and controls the user behaviour on social media platforms is contemplating formulating new rules over who can post news content. Reportedly the new rules are believed to be announced towards the end of the year. After the passing of the new law, the authorities would be able to legally ask social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube to take down the content.
Reports bring out that the Vietnamese government has been holding meetings with the social media firms is planning to put a cap on newslisation. Newslisation or bao hoa, has been referred to such an occurrence wherein user wrongly gets the impression that the handles of social media are authorized news firms.
“The government wants to fix what it sees as the ‘news-lisation’ of social media,” said one source familiar with the talks. “News-lisation”, or báo hoá, is a term used by the authorities to describe the misleading of users into thinking that social media accounts are authorised news outlets.
Facebook Users In Vietnam
According to an estimate of 2021, the country has a total number of users of 60-70 million Facebook subscribers and it features among the top ten markets to the Facebook. Reports bring out that Taiwan contributes one billion dollars to the company. Also, the country has 60 million YouTube users. The Micro-blogging site Twitter is reportedly the least used social media platform in the country.
Under the new proposed rule, the authorities could ask social media firms to remove the content from their platforms. The new rules empower authorities to order companies to ban a given user account. Reports bring out that the proposed new rule put the onus on social media firms to moderate content on their platform. The bill is also expected to incorporate the provision to differentiate between fake and real news portals. Vietnam plans to bring changes in the regulation by amending its internet law.
Reportedly, the growing dissatisfaction of the Vietnam government over social media firms’ inaction in removing content is one of the reasons behind the coming up of the new bill.
Vietnam Previous Guidelines
Previously, Vietnam has also issued guidelines, wherein it has requested the leading social media firms to store data within the country. Besides asking for data localization the country has also asked social media firms to set up a local office in the country. The set of guidelines is set to come into effect in the next month.
