Lessons from Nguyen Phuong Hang's story: All actions on social networks must comply with the law

1.After exactly 1 year (March 2021-March 2022) of "going live" on social networks with all kinds of gestures such as waving hands, dancing, singing, crying, laughing, on March 24, 2022, Ms. Nguyen Phuong Hang was prosecuted by the authorities under Decision No. 190-01/QD for the crime of "Taking advantage of democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals" under Article 331 of the Penal Code.

That is the consequence of Ms. Nguyen Phuong Hang's actions in 1 year, through social media accounts speaking directly, providing much unverified information, insulting the reputation and honor of many organizations and individuals; even using words that lack standards, go against good customs, promoting the culture of swearing on cyberspace.

Ms. Nguyen Phuong Hang at the Ho Chi Minh City Police Investigation Agency. Photo: CACC

Reacting to Ms. Hang's actions on social networks, the online community is divided into two different streams of thought. One stream believes that Ms. Hang was inevitably punished by the authorities because she violated the law. The other stream always supports, encourages, propagates, and praises Ms. Hang's actions, and now that Ms. Hang has been punished by the authorities, there are still people who deliberately do not understand the law to praise Ms. Hang, using that to distort the Party's policies and guidelines, and the policies and laws of the Vietnamese State.

Some people even boldly distorted: "The application of Article 331 to Ms. Hang is a very funny incident in the application of the law of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam", "because there is no freedom and democracy in Vietnam to take advantage of" (?!). From there, they moved on to defend the wrongdoings of Tinh That Bong Lai and defend some illegal acts on social networks.

2.Readers and netizens must have felt that at first, Ms. Hang's behavior of "going live on air" had, in some ways, a warning and deterrent effect to prevent dishonest and non-transparent actions in mobilizing and spending charitable resources; warning against taking advantage of trust for personal gain through unscientific forms of donations, charity, and medical treatment. But, unfortunately, Ms. Hang has gone beyond the limits of speech, ethics, culture, and legal limits. Perhaps Ms. Hang and some people have mistakenly, or intentionally mistakenly, understood "freedom of speech" so they have gone too far, ignoring the warnings of netizens and the reminders and deterrences of authorities.

Freedom of speech is the principle that guarantees an individual or a community the freedom to clearly express their views and opinions without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal punishment. The right to “freedom of expression” has been recognized as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the United Nations International Human Rights Law. Article 25 of the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (2013) stipulates: “Citizens have the right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, access to information, assembly, association, and demonstration. The exercise of these rightsas prescribed by law”. That is understood as the right to freely have and maintain one's own views, to freely seek, receive and share information, but within the limits prescribed by law, in accordance with the ethical values, culture and fine traditions of the Vietnamese people, not arbitrarily, slander, defame, deceive, or infringe upon national security, social order, or the freedom of others.

Citizens have the right to freedom of speech but it must be within the limits prescribed by law. Illustrative image

Individuals and organizations must be responsible for their actions and conduct on social networks; coordinate with competent authorities to handle actions and information content that violate the law. Article 8 of the Law on Cyber ​​Security stipulates prohibited actions such as: Distorting history, denying revolutionary achievements, undermining national unity, insulting religion, discriminating based on gender, racism; providing false information; posting obscene, depraved, and criminal information; undermining national traditions and customs, social ethics;...

The Code of Conduct on Social Media, effective from June 17, 2021 (issued by the Ministry of Information and Communications), also recognizes the code of conduct for organizations and individuals, such as not posting content that violates the law, information that insults the honor and dignity, affecting the rights and legitimate interests of other organizations and individuals; using offensive language, violating public morals; spreading fake news, untrue news; advertising, illegal business services, etc.

Thus, any act of freedom of speech that violates the prohibitions of the law is not protected by the law and must be held responsible before the law. Accordingly, Ms. Nguyen Phuong Hang has violated the law and is being handled by the authorities according to the law, which is inevitable. If anyone knows how to respect the law, protect the right and justice, they will certainly agree with and support the decision of the Vietnamese authorities; actively propagate and educate so that no more Ms. Nguyen Phuong Hang appears on social networks. On the contrary, anyone who continues to promote and protect Ms. Hang's illegal actions is definitely opposing the law and the law will certainly not forgive!

3.Social networks are products of human culture and civilization, so netizens must ensure network culture and not act in violation of the Law on Cyber ​​Security and Vietnamese law in general. Ms. Hang's story is typical of countless colorful stories of netizens, becoming a phenomenon of behavior towards network culture. This is also a warning lesson for netizens: respect network culture and know freedom of speech within the framework of the law; no matter how much money you have, how much charity you do, how high your management or leadership is, you cannot overcome the law!

View full textSocial media code of conduct.