Police continue to summon subjects posting fabricated information about the collapse of the Ban Ve Hydropower Dam

Implementing the direction of the Provincial Police Director on urgently handling cases of posting and sharingFalse information about Ban Ve Hydropower Dam collapseThe Internal Political Security Department presided over and coordinated with the police of communes in the area to review and verify accounts posting and sharing false rumors that caused public confusion and seriously affected the security and order situation in the locality.

Since late afternoon of July 27, information about the hydroelectric dam collapse has been spread on cyberspace, causing hundreds of households living in the communes downstream of the Nam Non River to panic and flee to the mountains. The Internal Political Security Department has coordinated with the police of the communes in the area to check and verify the Facebook accounts that shared and live-streamed this content. Initially, 4 Facebook accounts were discovered to be local people and some individuals participating in charity activities in Tuong Duong commune, including the accounts "PHS (THHS)"; "LTT"; "H.O" and "LTS".

During the verification process, the police identified the owners of the accounts "PHS (THHS)"; "LTT"; "H.O" as participating in charity work in the old districts of Tuong Duong and Ky Son. On the night of July 27, Luong Son Commune Police summoned and requested Ms. PHS (born in 1988), residing in Hong Son Commune, old Do Luong District, now Luong Son Commune, Nghe An Province, owner of the Facebook account PHS (THHS) to return to her locality for questioning. At the police station, S. said that at around 5:40 p.m. the same day, while passing through Tam Quang Commune, hearing people shouting that the dam had broken, S. sat in his car, used his personal phone to broadcast live with the content: "Dam broke, everyone" and shouted for everyone to run away. Because S. does online business, her Facebook account has nearly 3,000 followers, so the video quickly attracted thousands of viewers, comments and shares. At around 6:40 p.m., after knowing the above information was fake, S. posted a correction on his personal page.

With the motto of urgently and strictly handling those who spread fabricated rumors, in addition to helping people overcome the consequences of floods, the working group of the Internal Political Security Department coordinated with the police of My Ly and Tuong Duong communes to continue to call and summon those who are doing charity work in the area to the police headquarters for questioning. Accordingly, on the morning of July 28, My Ly commune police summoned TMH (born in 1993), owner of the Facebook account "H.O", residing in Luu Son commune, former Do Luong district, now Do Luong commune, Nghe An province. On his personal page, H. posted the information: "Notice. Currently, the dam is broken in Ban Ang. Volunteer vehicles, please pay attention and turn around".

At the same time, Tuong Duong Commune Police summoned LTT, owner of the Facebook account LTT (born in 2002), residing in Hamlet 6, Thuong Son Commune, former Do Luong District, now Van Hien Commune, Nghe An Province. T. is a freelance worker, and at the time T. was participating in charity work in Tuong Duong Commune. On his personal page, T. posted: "According to the announcement: hydroelectric dam broke in Tuong Duong, everyone pay attention". Previously, on the night of July 27, Tuong Duong Commune Police summoned the owner of the account LTS (Yen Hoa Commune, Nghe An Province).

All of the above information is fabricated and unverified, but the subjects have spread and shared it on cyberspace, causing public confusion, affecting people's psychology and health, and the disaster prevention and response work of the government, local authorities and functional agencies, making people extremely upset and angry. Currently, Nghe An Police are continuing to consolidate the case file and handle the subjects for the act of "Providing and sharing fabricated information causing public confusion" according to Point d, Clause 1, Article 101, Decree 15/2020/ND-CP (amended in Decree 14/2022/ND-CP)./.