Minister Truong Minh Tuan: It is necessary to take advantage of the superior characteristics of social networks.

(Baonghean.vn) - Minister Truong Minh Tuan believes that social networks should not be restricted but should be exploited for their superior characteristics.

On the afternoon of April 18, the National Assembly Standing Committee questioned Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan. The questioning session was broadcast live to connecting points in provinces and cities.

Comrade Nguyen Thanh Hien - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation chaired at Nghe An bridge. Photo: Tien Hung.

Must take advantage of social networks

At the question and answer session, many delegates such as Nguyen Sy Cuong (Ninh Thuan); Nguyen Toa (Lam Dong); Tran Cong Thuat (Quang Binh)... expressed concern about the widespread situation of bad and toxic information from websites impersonating leaders; many websites spreading fake news defaming individuals and organizations; inciting hatred... The delegates asked the Minister to inform them of what actions the ministry has taken.

Regarding this, Minister Truong Minh Tuan said that the world is moving according to the development of information technology and social networks. This process also poses many challenges not only in Vietnam but also in the world. "Social networks are like a road on which there are both good and bad people. Many people use it very effectively, but there are also many people who take advantage of it to do bad things, causing unpredictable consequences," Minister Tuan said, adding that because of its transcendent nature, social networks play an important role, in the future social networking tools will dominate information. While we are integrating, we must take advantage of social networks and not limit them.

Vietnam is currently the country with the highest number of social network users in the world. Minister Tuan said that this is an inevitable trend, however, the Minister also admitted that currently hostile forces are thoroughly using social networks to defame the regime, leaders, defame organizations and individuals, attack each other, incite hatred and disrupt information...

Delegates at Nghe An bridge point pay attention to the presentation of solutions to prevent the negative aspects of social networks. Photo: Tien Hung.

Regarding prevention solutions, the Minister said that it is necessary to perfect the institutions, at the same time promote the provision of official information; clean up the press team; make information transparent... to "take the good, eliminate the bad". "When information in official newspapers is not complete, people will read it on social networks", said Minister Truong Minh Tuan and said that it is also necessary to strictly punish violations. For cases where the identity cannot be determined, businesses providing cross-border information must be required to remove violating information.

With 45 million Youtube users, Vietnam is in the top 10 countries with the most visitors to this channel. However, this is also a foreign channel that posts a lot of bad, toxic, and false information... According to Minister Tuan, the Ministry of Information and Communications has requested the removal of more than 2,000 bad, toxic clips on this channel in the recent past;...

In the coming time, the ministry will coordinate with Facebook to remove fake pages. In addition, there are technical solutions and propaganda to raise public awareness. In addition, the ministry will also coordinate with functional agencies, Vietnamese and international businesses to strictly manage this issue...

Minister Truong Minh Tuan answers questions. Photo: Tien Hung.

The problem of junk SIM cards

Responding to questions about the still-painful issue of spam messages, Minister Tuan said that the reason this issue has not been thoroughly resolved is because of the interests of many parties, including network operators, agents and users. Recently, the ministry has also dealt quite drastically with the issue of junk SIM cards. “We have found that the previous method of 'letting the chickens go and catching them' is not effective. Why not block them but release them and then catch them one by one? The way of dealing with agents is also not effective, but we must block them right from the network operators, hold the network operators accountable, and prevent them right from the system,” Minister Truong Minh Tuan said, adding that from October 2016 to now, the ministry has collected 20 million junk SIM cards. However, in reality, there are still quite a large number.

In addition, Minister Tuan also proposed a number of solutions such as strictly managing national number resources, reducing 11-digit SIM numbers; clearly defining the responsibilities of the head; at the same time, the ministry also coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Finance to propose to competent authorities to regulate increased fines; and encourage users to use postpaid SIM cards...

Many reality TV shows are offensive.

Some delegates reported that television programs, especially reality TV, have many offensive images. The Minister said that this is an issue of great public concern. Recently, many programs have reported inaccurate news, even affecting the production and business of people and enterprises such as: "Using a broom to sweep vegetables"; some game shows... of VTV, HTV have staged untrue details, offensive images...

The Ministry has had strict and appropriate warnings and penalties.

To avoid such mistakes in the future, the Ministry will strengthen post-inspection work; strictly handle violations; and even revoke licenses and suspend operations of erring press agencies. In addition, the Ministry will coordinate with the Central Propaganda Department and the Vietnam Journalists Association in training, fostering, and improving the professional skills of journalists...

At the question and answer session, Minister Truong Minh Tuan also answered and proposed solutions on issues of network security and electronic information in society....

Tien Hung