More than 146 people were punished for posting false information about Covid-19

Information from the Ministry of Public Security said that taking advantage of the Covid-19 epidemic situation, hostile and reactionary forces, and politically dissatisfied subjects at home and abroad have taken advantage of the situation to spread on cyberspace a lot of false information, distorting the epidemic situation and the direction and management of the Government, the Ministry of Health and ministries, branches and localities in the efforts to prevent and fight the epidemic.

Many people have also taken advantage of the epidemic situation to spread fake news or provide information that is not authentic, unverified, or based on personal opinions and perceptions to attract views and likes, causing confusion in public opinion.

The purpose of these subjects is to cause panic and fear among the masses, create instability and internal division, and potentially cause political instability, social order and security.

The methods and tricks of the subjects are to set up many websites, groups, Facebook accounts... to disseminate and share articles, images, videos with distorted, fabricated, and provocative content about the epidemic situation in Vietnam. Fabricating shocking information about the number of deaths due to the epidemic in Vietnam, instructing on home remedies such as drinking alcohol, bathing with lemongrass... thereby calling for self-treatment at home, boycotting the instructions of the Ministry of Health; taking advantage of the "information gap" on official websites to insert distorted and fabricated information, causing confusion in public opinion.

Many cases due to lack of knowledge have collected and shared false information, even information from reactionary websites on personal Facebook pages, unintentionally contributing to the spread of false information on cyberspace. Besides, there are also many cases of posting news to attract views, likes, increase interaction, express one's ego and serve the purpose of online sales...

Notably, through the policy of purchasing advertisements on the Facebook technology platform, many reactionary organizations and individuals abroad have spent tens of thousands of USD to run advertisements with content distorting the epidemic situation in Vietnam, deliberately spreading false news to attack the Vietnamese Government for "covering up information" and being weak in handling the epidemic...

According to statistics from the police force, since the Covid-19 epidemic broke out, there have been nearly 300,000 news and articles posted on electronic information sites, blogs, and forums; nearly 600,000 news, articles, and video clips related to the epidemic posted on social networks. Among them, there are many news and articles with unverified, distorted, and false content, attracting millions of comments and shares.

Police units and localities nationwide have so far verified and worked with 654 cases of false reporting; administratively sanctioned more than 146 subjects.

After being investigated and analyzed by the police, the violators realized their violations, removed the false information themselves, and pledged not to repeat the offense./.