The circular was released by the Ministry of Information and Communications against a background where the government has become increasingly focused on countering fake news related to Vietnam.
Vietnam has the right to request a removal of and directly prevent news seen harmful to the nation and fake news, said Hi-tech Crime Prevention Department under the Ministry of Public Security. The Circular 38 serves as a legal basis for relevant agencies to prevent harmful information published on the internet in Vietnam.
"Previously, it was difficult to trace crime as servers were in other countries or IP addresses were anonymous. Meanwhile, there were difficulties in co-operating with information service providers, especially foreign ones", colonel Tran Van Doanh - Vice Director of Hi-tech Crime Prevention Department, Ministry of Public Security - said.
The Ministry of Information and Communications says that global information service providers must obey Vietnamese laws as they are provided with favourable conditions to operate in the country. Since the beginning of this year, Google has worked with Vietnam to remove 1,500 harmful videos and a large amount of articles with distorted information.
"We have specific mechanism to collaborate with Google and YouTube to remove harmful videos. By the end of April, representatives from Facebook will come to Vietnam and work with the ministry on the issue. Some advertising companies have refused to accept customers who posted advertisements breaking Vietnamese laws", Truong Minh Tuan - Minister of Information and Communications - said.
According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, information service providers such as Google and Facebook must have representatives in Vietnam. In addition, they are being told to install software to remove harmful information before it is disseminated in the country.
