Minister Nguyen Bac Son: Electronic news sites still have copyright infringement

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son said that electronic news sites have a certain role but still have shortcomings such as copyright infringement, violation of legitimate freedoms of others, and violation of national security.

Responding to questions at the National Assembly on November 17, Minister Nguyen Bac Son focused on a number of issues raised by delegates such as telecommunications planning, spam messages, and website management.

According to the head of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), passive telecommunications planning is an important planning for the whole country. The telecommunications industry has developed sustainably in recent times, services have developed strongly, and this has been achieved thanks to the important role of telecommunications infrastructure. Currently, 30 provinces and cities have planned passive telecommunications infrastructure.

According to Minister Nguyen Bac Son, the installation of antennas and broadcasting towers on rooftops and in residential areas is allowed because telecommunications infrastructure must be located in residential areas to provide better service, the only thing left is to ensure aesthetics and safety for the people. According to regulations, enterprises building export processing zones, industrial zones, and urban areas must reserve certain locations for telecommunications enterprises to install stations, so it cannot be said that the Ministry of Information and Communications is lax in managing this issue.

Minister Nguyen Bac Son

The Minister said that the telecommunications industry contributes a lot to the state budget. In the past 10 months, telecommunications businesses had a revenue of 280 trillion VND with a profit of 40 trillion VND and paid billions of VND in taxes to the budget.

Responding to questions about the rampant spam messages, Minister Nguyen Bac Son said that spam messages currently have 3 sources: first is junk SIM cards. SIM card management is not strict. Second is OTT messaging on the internet. Third is from CSP digital content providers, who allow them to send advertising messages but they take advantage of this form to send spam messages. This situation has caused frustration for people as the delegates mentioned.

According to the Minister, we have a rapidly developing and hot telecommunications industry, currently we have 126 million subscribers (121 million mobile), of which 111 million are prepaid. These prepaid subscribers are not well managed, leading to junk SIMs, virtual SIMs, and most of the spam messages come from prepaid subscribers. Managing prepaid subscribers is a very big problem for the industry. Regarding spam messages on the OTT network, according to the Minister, the OTT network is currently a very strong developing network, some network operators take advantage of the advertising function. The Ministry of Information and Communications has issued directives, circulars... to tighten this issue such as registering user names.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son answered questions from Deputy Pham Thi Hai (Dong Nai) about the widespread problem of copying and copyright infringement on social networking sites today. The Minister said that the Ministry has currently licensed 1,599 general electronic news sites, along with millions of personal blogs on the internet.

General information websites play a certain role for many users. Decree 72 clearly states that general information websites are allowed to quote verbatim some types of documents. Thus, general information websites are an extension of the Party and State's policy propaganda; a place for people to gather, share, and interact, bringing information and good social effects. On the contrary, these websites also have certain shortcomings such as copyright infringement, violation of the legitimate freedom of others, and violation of national security. Article 5 of Decree 72 has set out sanctions and prohibitions for general information websites. The Ministry has made certain adjustments and has imposed penalties, but the situation still causes social outrage. The responsibility belongs to the Ministry and management agencies at all levels.

Recently, there have been certain guiding documents such as Circular 04, 20 implementing Decree 72 to better manage, exploit and use social media, including general electronic information sites. It is hoped that in the coming time, we will continue to implement a number of important solutions, further correcting these violations by legal regulations. "Recently, when the National Assembly was in session, we revoked a number of licenses of general electronic information sites that violated legal regulations. This action was well received by society," Minister Son emphasized.

In the coming time, the Ministry will promote the improvement of the quality of network operators' responsibilities, maintain and monitor management more closely; request provinces and cities that have been involved a lot such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to continue to promote further; the Ministry will continue to coordinate with relevant agencies to issue documents, directives and circulars to contribute to improving the management of these activities in the network environment; hope that in the coming time, Decree 72 will be upgraded to Law to manage activities in the network environment other than the press; promote the role and responsibility of citizens when using social networking sites...

According to Infonet