The businesses which broke the regulations on advertising activities have ceased their advertisement immediately and start considering their marketing campaigns

The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has requested foreign and domestic companies to stop advertising on YouTube’s videos with dissenting or anti-government content, VnExpress reported.

The targeted companies include Samsung Vietnam, Grab, Sun Group, Yamaha, Shopee, VNG, Huawei Vietnam, Watsons, Thai Minh Pharm. JSC, Topica English Center, among others, which were found advertising on the videos said to have harmful contents.

The aforementioned companies and brands have been required to submit their explanation on the advertisements before June 17.

The MIC's Agency of Broadcasting and Electronic Information said it detected advertisements for Vietnamese products and services on YouTube’s videos that had “toxic contents” as early as in 2017.

Particularly, Google shared the advertising revenues with its partners who are the authors of malicious videos, indirectly abetting the opposed moves to Vietnam.

The agency stressed that the activity seriously broke the regulations on advertising, and considered it a risk that negatively affects the security and prestige of companies and brands.

Following the agency’s request, the businesses have ceased their advertisement immediately and start reconsidering their marketing campaigns, according to Zing news.

Samsung Vietnam’s representative confirmed the company would review and delete its ads on some malicious videos on YouTube and committed to tighten control over the working process with Google.

Grab has halted running ads in all videos on YouTube and sent official documents to Google requesting it to suspend the Grab’s ads added by auto-programs without examining the content.

Shopee has required Google to provide the list of relevant advertising websites and actively reviews the ads to ensure the advertising activities are in accordance with the regulations. Hanoitimes

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