Announcing a series of TikTok violations in Vietnam

TikTok Singapore must take responsibility for TikTok Vietnam's operations

On the afternoon of October 5, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Information and Communications announced the conclusion of the interdisciplinary inspection team on TikTok's operations in Vietnam.

The TikTok platform is a cross-border service managed, operated and provided in Vietnam by TikTok Pte. Ltd (also known as TikTok Singapore Company) through the website TikTok.com and the TikTok application since the end of 2017, becoming popular since 2021. In recent times, the activities of the TikTok platform have had a significant impact on social life in the country, including somehillegal behavior, causing public outrage

In order to strengthen management, promptly detect, rectify and handle violations of the platform, from May 22, 2023, the Ministry of Information and Communications has coordinated with relevant ministries and branches to establish an interdisciplinary inspection team to conduct a comprehensive inspection of TikTok's operations in Vietnam.

The subjects of the inspection are two legal entities of TikTok in Vietnam, including TikTok Pte. Ltd Representative Office in Ho Chi Minh City (TikTok Office) and TikTok Vietnam Technology Company Limited (TikTok Vietnam Company).

According to Mr. Le Quang Tu Do - Director of the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information (PTTH&TTDT, Ministry of Information and Communications), the main inspection contents include compliance with regulations on providing social network services to users in Vietnam, compliance with regulations on advertising, protection of copyright and related rights. In addition, it also includes compliance with regulations related to providing e-commerce services and implementation of tax obligations.

After completing the direct inspection and verification at the headquarters of TikTok Office and TikTok Vietnam Company, the inspection team continued to collect and study relevant documents, verify, organize work and request the inspected subjects to supplement the necessary records and documents to serve the inspection work.

On September 29, 2023, the Ministry of Information and Communications issued a Conclusion on a comprehensive inspection of TikTok's operations in Vietnam. Accordingly, the inspection results showed that TikTok Office and TikTok Vietnam Company did not directly participate in the management and provision of cross-border services into Vietnam through the TikTok.com website and TikTok application. The provision of cross-border services into Vietnam is directly managed and operated by TikTok Pte.Ltd (TikTok Singapore).

As for the e-commerce trading floor service, because the TikTok Office carries out the registration procedure to establish a "Commercial Trading Floor" through the TikTok application under the authorization of TikTok Singapore, according to the regulations on e-commerce, the TikTok Office must be jointly responsible for violations in providing this service according to the provisions of Vietnamese law.

Although TikTok Pte. Ltd (TikTok Singapore) is not the subject of inspection, it is the unit that directly manages, operates, and provides cross-border services to Vietnam through the website TikTok.com and the TikTok application. Therefore, TikTok Singapore is the unit responsible for complying with Vietnamese law in providing cross-border services to Vietnam. The inspection team then determined a number of violations by TikTok Singapore in providing cross-border services to Vietnam.

TikTok's violations in Vietnam

According to Director Le Quang Tu Do, TikTok's prominent violations in Vietnam include providing social networking services, child protection, and providing e-commerce services.

Regarding the provision of social networking services and child protection, TikTok Singapore stores information that violates Vietnamese law on CDN servers in Vietnam. Specifically, it is fake information, distorted information, information that incites violence, incites social evils; information that is harmful to children...

TikTok's content censorship process is ineffective, allowing many contents that violate Vietnamese law to slip through. The way content is distributed and recommended based on user interactions, interests, and concerns can easily lead to content that violates Vietnamese law spreading quickly if many users interact and care.

TikTok does not have measures or tools to ensure the safety of children's private information; does not send warning messages when children provide or change their private information; does not detect and remove images, documents, and information that are inappropriate for children and affect children's healthy development; does not organize the reception of information, evaluate and classify it according to the level of safety for children.

TikTok's activities violate the provisions of Clause 1, Article 5 of Decree No. 72/2013/ND-CP dated July 15, 2013 on management, provision and use of Internet services and online information, and the provisions of Clause 1, Article 36 of Decree No. 130/2021/ND-CP dated December 30, 2021 of the Government on administrative sanctions for violations in the field of social protection, assistance and children. The platform still allows children under 13 years of age to open accounts even though it is a social networking platform only for people aged 13 and over.

TikTok has not yet applied a policy to protect users' copyrighted content; has not yet notified the contact point on copyright and related rights issues to the specialized agency in charge of State management of copyright and related rights of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and has not made it public on the TikTok platform's website.

Regarding the provision of e-commerce services, TikTok has not published information about the application owner on the homepage of the TikTok Shop application as prescribed, violating the provisions of Point d, Clause 1, Article 62 of Decree No. 98/2020/ND-CP dated August 26, 2020 (amended at Point b, Clause 33, Article 3 of Decree No. 17/2022/ND-CP dated January 31, 2022).

This platform has not yet fully stored seller information as required when registering to use the service and has not fully performed inspection and supervision to ensure the provision of information about sellers' goods on the e-commerce trading floor as required...