Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan received Damian Yeo, head of legal and regulatory affairs for Facebook in the Asia Pacific region, in Hanoi on January 11. 

Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan (the fourth from the left ) and representatives from Facebook

During the meeting, Minister Tuan appreciated recent cooperation of Facebook in dealing with issues of Vietnamese Government’s concern. 

He said the two sides have worked together in removing information violating Vietnam’s laws and fake accounts, as well as preventing illegal trading activities on Facebook, at the proposal of the Vietnamese Information and Communications Ministry (MIC) 

The minister noted that Facebook has removed more than 670 out of nearly 5,000 Facebook accounts that are false or spread defamation, obscenity and violence, but  the remaining ones are causing concern in many areas. 

In addition, many harmful and unlawful video clips that have blocked and removed from Google and Youtube at the request of the MIC still appear and spread on Facebook. 

The minister stressed that Vietnam is particularly concerned about information that incites anti-government and anti-Party sentiment, violence, or smear the regime, and called for Facebook’s collaboration to deal with the problem.

He urged a better cooperation mechanism to ensure a healthy and law-abiding development of Facebook in Vietnam, along with an effective coordination mechanism between Vietnam and Facebook to address issues of Vietnam’s concern. 

Noting that 70 percent of Vietnam’s population use the internet and 53 million Vietnamese use Facebook and other social networks, Minister Tuan said he hopes Facebook will work together with Vietnam to build a healthy information society in accordance with Vietnamese legal regulations, adding that Vietnam always welcomes Facebook and other social networks. 

Damian Yeo pledged to join hands with Vietnamese authorized agencies to develop a healthy internet environment, and focus on dealing with bad information in the global scale, including relevant proposal from the MIC. 

 In 2018, Facebook will continue closely coordinating with Vietnam in this work, through organising working sessions to share experience and seek solutions to the issue, he said.

He proposed establishing a channel to better deal with information violating Vietnamese law on social networks, which was welcomed by Minister Truong Minh Tuan.-VNA