The Q4 2022 Community Standards Enforcement Report was recently released by TikTok, in which the short-form video platform committed to quickly remove content such as child sex abuse and violent extremism; minimize total views of content that violates community standards; and ensure accuracy, consistency and fairness for content creators.

In order to implement the commitments, the platform will strengthen connections between automatic control technology and the qualified censorship team in order to give accurate conclusions about the content, such as misinformation and hostile and harassing content.

TikTok has also committed to carefully control content. It said it has begun improving its approaches to optimize accuracy, minimize views of breached content and quickly remove content in serious violation.

Before making decisions on removing videos, and giving power to professional censorship teams, or implementing other measures, TikTok upgraded its browsing routing system to include the conditions about the severity of the harm (based on types of potential violations) and the expected reach (based on the number of followers of the accounts).

TikTok has also improved other features such as age restrictions, recommendation limits, and content level systems to reduce danger by limiting viewers' access to content. 

On April 6, at a press conference held by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), Director of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) Le Quang Tu Do cited a series of violations committed by TikTok.

He said toxic, offensive, false and superstitious content has been appearing on TikTok in Vietnam, including content related to politics, opposing the Party and the State of Vietnam.

The violations have created favorable conditions for fake news to spread, causing economic losses and uncertainties to society, encouraging youth to imitate and follow bad trends, distort youth’s awareness and lifestyle, and undermine the nation’s cultural value. 

This has also facilitated illegal business activities and copyright infringement.

Therefore, besides the current solutions, MIC will implement others to force cross-border platforms, including TikTok, to observe Vietnamese laws.

MIC plans to team up with relevant agencies including the Ministries of Industry and Trade (MOIT), Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST), Public Security (MPS) and the General Department of Taxation (GDT) to conduct a comprehensive inspection of TikTok in Vietnam in May 2023.

MIC will also cooperate with relevant agencies to make assessment of the impacts of TikTok on the community, especially the youth.

Van Anh