Against the distortion of the resignation and dismissal of officials

PV:Dear Major Phi Van Thanh, regarding the dismissal and resignation of officials recently, how have reactionary and hostile forces spread distorted information?

Major Phi Van Thanh:The issue of personnel, especially high-ranking personnel in Party and State agencies, has long been a topic that has attracted public attention. In particular, with important positions in Party and State agencies, who is appointed will have a direct impact on the future and destiny of the nation. Therefore, any changes inhuman resourcesof the Party and State quickly received the attention of the community.

The national cadre conference thoroughly grasped and implemented the conclusions and regulations of the Party Central Committee on Party building and rectification work. Photo: dangcongsan.vn

Taking advantage of this issue, hostile forces, organizations and individuals with ill will towards the regime, hiding behind the guise of democracy and human rights, have created thousands of social networking sites, especially social platforms Facebook and YouTube, to convey distorted information to the masses.

On the one hand, they still repeat the slanderous argument that this is the result of “power struggles” and “factional fighting”. On the other hand, they actively spread baseless speculations, make up stories, cut off information, and use phenomena to distort the nature of the issue. They deliberately distort the argument, fabricate arguments and evidence, in order to mislead the public into understanding the nature of the issue. In the style of “an anonymous official said”, “according to insiders”, “sideline sources”…

PV:CopperHow would you rate the amount, frequency, sophistication, and danger of such information?

Major Phi Van Thanh:One of the most effective methods of hostile forces to sabotage us is to use cyberspace. Because now, we have nearly 100 million people and the number of people using smartphones and other devicesuse social mediaup to 70 million people.

In particular, the trend of integrating artificial intelligence into social networks is exploding, viewers only need to view, access a bad, toxic page, then immediately will be suggested to view hundreds of other pages with similar content. Currently, about 63% of users read fake news online, 200 YouTube channels post more than 300 bad, toxic videos every day.

Hostile forces set up social networking sites, especially Facebook and YouTube, to spread distorted information. Photo: Archive

Therefore, the spread of bad information is getting faster and more dangerous, immediately affecting the awareness of all classes of people, thereby causing skepticism in the political system, in the leadership of the Party and State, spreading confusion and pessimism among a part of cadres, party members, and the masses, leading to negative and rebellious psychology...

PV:Can you analyze the typical tricks that reactionary and hostile elements often use to shake and change the thinking and awareness of the people, cadres and party members about the issue of resignation and dismissal in particular, and the Party's cadre work in general?

Major Phi Van Thanh:We can see that the ultimate goal of these subjects is to disrupt and destabilize society, leading to the weakening of the political system and the Party's leadership role in society, in the country and in our revolutionary cause.

The essence of propaganda activitieshostile forces, bad elements are to cause internal division. Through regularly making up stories, exaggerating the mistakes and shortcomings of cadres and party members, thereby causing confusion, creating resentment in public opinion, inciting people to cause insecurity and disorder... in order to undermine the prestige of cadres, break the solidarity bloc within the Party, and divide the Party from the people. After being passively influenced by bad information, people have actively sought out this information. This is extremely dangerous.

Nghe An Police Department works with the subject who posted false information on social media. Illustration photo: Duc Vu

PV:So how should people distinguish between true information and false, distorted, and destructive information, comrade?

Major Phi Van Thanh:To actively prevent and combat bad and toxic information on social networks, each person needs to equip themselves with the necessary knowledge and skills, such as:

- About form:People need to carefully consider the titles of each article; pay attention to the links; verify the source of the information, see where the information comes from, if it comes from a stranger, the information is unclear, be careful, you can check the introduction section to check. In addition, you need to clearly understand the subject of the post. If it is a fake, illegitimate account and the content of the page has an attitude that is not consistent with the official viewpoint, it should be removed. At the same time, check the domain name of the website posting the information, often the source of bad, toxic information is a website with a foreign domain name (.com, .org), without the Vietnamese domain name extension ".vn".

Illustration: Document

- About content:Disruptive information often has content that harms national security, social order and safety; undermines national unity; propagates war and terrorism; causes hatred and conflicts between peoples, ethnicities and religions; fabricated information, distorts the truth, misrepresents issues, "changes black and white", confuses right and wrong, true and false; these are types of information with content that is not in accordance with ethical standards, culture, customs and traditions such as: inciting violence, defaming private life, slander, false rumors, nonsense, creepy information...; information that encourages and entices participation in social evils such as drugs, prostitution, lottery, gambling, betting, loan sharking, participation in secret societies and closed groups on social networks leading to violations of discipline and law; false and harmful information of a criminal nature such as: online fraud, stealing information, passwords, spreading viruses...

PV:As for the cadres and party members, how should we promote our roles and responsibilities in fighting against the distorted arguments of hostile and reactionary forces, comrade?

Major Phi Van Thanh:First of all, each cadre and party member needs to improve their dialectical thinking, critical thinking and correct awareness of bad and toxic information on social networks; improving professional qualifications, solid theory, and understanding of the country's and the world's political and social realities will help cadres and party members be steadfast and confident in criticizing and fighting against bad and toxic information, protecting the country and the regime.

Each cadre and party member must also be responsible for spreading authentic, quality, and standard information, and persistently upholding the viewpoint of "embracing the beautiful and eliminating the ugly" by mobilizing friends, relatives, colleagues, and the community to understand and strictly comply with the law, and trust in the leadership of the Party and State.

On the other hand, each cadre and party member needs to grasp the provisions of the Law on Cyber ​​Security, strictly comply with the provisions on the right to information, the scope of information as prescribed in the 2013 Constitution, the 2016 Law on Access to Information to avoid violations that may be unintentional but have negative impacts on themselves and society. At the same time, actively participate in exposing and warning social network users about the manifestations of information manipulation, spreading bad, toxic, inaccurate information, etc.

PV:Thank you Major Phi Van Thanh!