Nguyen Bac Son, Minister of Information and Communications, spoke to Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper about the need to adopt technical measures to stop the spread of harmful information.

What does the draft Law on Information Safety say about posting information and articles on social media?

Minister Nguyen Bac Son.

Information safety on social networks is an issue in urgent need of attention from the Ministry of Information and Communications and other government agencies. We need to have social media policies that reflect and execute Viet Nam's laws.

When it comes to information safety on social networks, the responsibility of guarding and monitoring public information lies with both network users and management agencies.

For users, I think that we should further raise awareness about how network users can protect themselves. Additionally, we should encourage organisations and individuals to think twice before they post potentially compromising information on social networks.

For the immediate future, we should retrieve ill-intentioned pieces of information and pictures already posted to avoid further incidents like the recent case of a girl in Dong Nai Province who committed suicide after her boyfriend posted their sex clip on his Facebook account.

Some people complained of "black" web page that have servers from abroad. What can be done about them?

Cross-border information is a challenge, not only for Viet Nam but also for other countries. Even in the US, warnings of possible attacks on government websites are frequently made. In Viet Nam, there is no exception.

We have taken measures to prevent cyber attacks, but as we all know, nowadays technology changes quickly. It is not easy to prevent hackers from attacking. Viet Nam's policy is to encourage the free flow of information, but it must also abide by Vietnamese law.

Decree 72 declares that companies wanting to provide certain kinds of information on a web site must have at least one server based in Viet Nam. This is a rule everyone has to abide by, no exception! The rule is in the interests of Vietnamese citizens and national security.

Some people proposed that the law should prohibit people using nicknames on their facebook account. How do you respond to that?

Facebook is a big social network and everyone has the right to open his or her own account. So, it is not easy to prohibit people using nicknames.

Article 25 of our 2013 Constitution guarantees freedom of the press and citizens' rights to freedom of speech and access to information. That is why all people have the right to create facebook accounts. But, if someone misuses facebook to slander others, they will be punished by law. 

VNS