Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son said that dealing with Facebook pages impersonating Party and State leaders is difficult because the servers are located abroad.

Discussing at the 9th Session on the draft Law on Information Security recently, many National Assembly deputies expressed concerns about the negative consequences of social networks on young people as well as on socio-political life.

According to Minister Nguyen Bac Son, that requires legal documents to help manage information security while still ensuring people's freedom and democracy.

The case of a 15-year-old female student committing suicide and the issue of network information security

Minister Nguyen Bac Son said that to ensure information security, each country has many different laws. For example, to ensure the safety of undersea fiber optic cables, Australia and New Zealand have their own laws. Regarding the security of personal information, countries such as Japan, Korea, Thailand, etc. have issued their own laws.

Vietnam has just drafted a law but has “collected” everything, including network information security, into one law. There are contents that other countries have their own laws, but we only put them into one chapter. But anyway, we still have to do it and this is a big challenge for the drafting agency to make the law feasible and ensure safety in the network environment.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son

Referring to the case of a 15-year-old female student in Dong Nai who committed suicide because she could not bear the pressure of public opinion when her boyfriend posted a sex clip on Facebook, the Minister said that it was private information between the two of them. The boyfriend's behavior violated ethics and social responsibility and needed to be dealt with. This also raised the issue of information security on the Internet that State management agencies must handle, including the responsibility of the Ministry of Information and Communications.

“The young man has been prosecuted and will be strictly investigated and tried by the authorities. He spreads bad information that harms members of society, so we need to fight him educationally and criminally,” Mr. Nguyen Bac Son emphasized.

In terms of management, the Minister said he recommends that all network operators, when discovering similar content, must quickly take technical measures to prevent it, so as not to lead to unfortunate consequences like the recent one.

Regarding the personal responsibility of each person when participating in social networks, the law is also designed to increase propaganda to raise awareness of self-protection; encourage organizations and individuals to post good information, in accordance with the law and social ethics online.

“We all have to be conscious of posting good information online. When we discover bad information that has a big impact on society, we must quickly report it to help authorities take timely and more responsive measures to prevent it. Because the increasing number of accesses and the spread of bad information will create pressure and can lead to a deadlock,” the Minister noted.

Difficult to handle Facebook impersonating senior leaders

Emphasizing the important role of State management agencies in combating bad information and arguments, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son said that since the regulations on spokespersons and information providers were issued, ministries, branches and localities have proactively provided information more regularly, limiting noise information.

“Previously, we could only hold press conferences once every three months, but now every month, ministries and sectors must provide public information on their websites. Previously, we could only provide information after two days, but now any information that has a major impact on society must be provided immediately. However, there are still some units that have not implemented it well, so the Prime Minister has recently directed and reminded them,” said Minister Nguyen Bac Son.

“Now, when it comes to banning impersonation on Facebook, imposing sanctions is a challenge. Society is moving towards all behaviors that can be managed and in fact, authorities are also looking for ways to resolve them. We encourage freedom of information, but freedom must be within the framework of the law,” the Minister emphasized.

The Constitution recognizes that every citizen has the right to freedom of information, freedom of speech, freedom to access and provide information, but if this freedom leads to harming the interests and freedoms of others, they must be punished.

According to the Minister of Information and Communications, everyone has the freedom to create a Facebook, but if you use your personal Facebook to post information that defames others, it is a violation of the law and the freedom of others, so you will be condemned and fought against; not to mention if you speak ill of the Party and the State, you need to be severely punished.

There are currently many personal Facebook pages impersonating other people, including Party and State leaders. However, managing these pages, according to Mr. Nguyen Bac Son, is very difficult because the servers are located abroad.

“According to the provisions of Decree 72, when registering to provide online information services, service providers are required to set up at least 1 server in Vietnam to be able to manage and easily resolve arising issues. There are many opposing opinions, but for the purpose of protecting the rights and legitimate interests of the people and national security, we still have to do it and are determined to do it,” the Minister emphasized.

According to Vov.vn