Facebook account owner fined for posting itinerary of suspected Covid-19 case

On the morning of August 2, the Inspectorate of the Department of Information and Communications of Thua Thien Hue province announced that the unit had just issued a decision to administratively fine TTTT (born in 1991, residing in Hue City) 7.5 million VND for posting information related to Covid-19 in violation of regulations, causing public confusion.

Previously, at 9:50 p.m. on July 31, Ms. T. used her mobile phone to post the travel itinerary of a female medical student (residing in Quang Ngai province, temporarily residing in Hue city) - a suspected case of Covid-19 infection - on her personal Facebook page without confirmation from the authorities.

Immediately after receiving the people's feedback, the Inspectorate of the Department of Information and Communications of Thua Thien Hue province coordinated with the Internal Political Security Department of the Provincial Police, Phu Hoa Ward Police, and Hue City Police to invite T. to work.

At the meeting, T. admitted that after posting, the content of T.'s Facebook post received many comments from readers; T. realized that posting the itinerary of a patient suspected of being infected with Covid-19 without being announced by a competent authority was not in accordance with regulations. At the same time, posting images that the authorities were blocking for epidemiological testing related to the above-mentioned suspected case along with the posted status line made people in the area in particular and people in Thua Thien Hue province in general confused and worried.

Through verification, the Inspector of the Department of Information and Communications of Thua Thien Hue province affirmed that T.'s behavior violated Point d, Clause 1, Article 101 of Decree 15/2020/ND-CP of the Government regulating administrative sanctions in the fields of post, telecommunications, radio frequencies, information technology and electronic transactions, so the above penalty decision was issued.

In the face of the consecutive incidents of many Facebook account holders in Thua Thien Hue province being punished by authorities for posting fabricated and untrue information related to the Covid-19 epidemic, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Son, Director of the Department of Information and Communications of Thua Thien Hue province, recommended that people should follow information on official media and newspapers, and should not take actions that cause panic, making the situation more complicated while the whole country is struggling to fight the Covid-19 epidemic.