Vietnam Expresses Concerns Over Increased Toxic Content on TikTok

The communications ministry of Vietnam stated that the Chinese social media app TikTok is not doing enough to remove false and toxic content. The Ministry warned that the government could soon take some measures to limit operations of the famous social media platform and others seen as violating Vietnam’s national laws.

Poor management of TikTok has led to the spread of “fake news” and “anti-government” content, threatening the country’s values and morals. The director of Vietnam’s Authority of Broadcasting, Television & Electronic Information – Le Quang Tu Do, gave the above statement.

Do stated that he has seen various such violations by the Meta Platform Inc.’s Facebook and YouTube. Due to weak management at TikTok, content that violates intellectual property rights and promotes illegal business operations is surfacing online.

Several governments around the world are giving the same comments about the China-based social media app TikTok. TikTok has been of particular focus in several countries, and it has already been banned in India and is under serious scrutiny in the United States, where many states have banned its usage on government phones due to concerns over ByteDance Ltd., the app’s Chinese owner could be asked to share its data with Beijing.

Vietnam’s communications ministry further plans to conduct a comprehensive inspection of TikTok in Vietnam in May due to increased toxic content and false information on the platform.

The Ministry has earlier proposed a decree needing some information considered malicious to be removed from the app within three hours, while what is thought to be fake news must be pulled down within 24 hours of being asked by authorities. It is also looking forward to raising the fine for distributing false information.

During the first six months of 2022, Facebook agreed to block over 1370 posts containing harmful content, while Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and TikTok removed around 5,363 videos and 182 clips.