Ministry of Information and Communications responds to Nghe An voters' petition on violations in advertising functional foods

Reply:

Advertising activities on electronic information pages and social networks must comply with the provisions of the Advertising Law and Decree No. 185/2013/ND-CP detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Management of Advertising.gAdvertisements for special products and goods that directly affect human health and life such as medicines and health protection foods are only carried out after the competent state agency (Ministry of Health) confirms the advertising content.

A TV station was impersonated to make an advertisement. Photo: Tien Hung

Recently, on the internet, there have been many advertisements for "miracle" and "miracle" food products, exaggerating their effects.g, product features, or advertising of consumer products that are lacking or of poor quality... The Ministry of Information and Communications has grasped this situation and implemented many corrective measures within the scope of its duties and powers:

- Organize meetings and rectify the activities of foreign enterprises, cross-border advertising network services in Vietnam, and foreign social networks such as Facebook and Google, requiring them to strictly censor the advertising of medicines and health protection foods, requiring a certificate of advertising content, advertising content must be consistent with the issued certificate, and have solutions to prevent the recurrence of posting and broadcasting illegal advertisements on their advertising networks and platforms. For Facebook and Google, request coordination in handling cases of violating advertisements such as blocking advertisements on violating channels and preventing illegal advertising content.

- Closely coordinate with functional units of the Ministry of Health - the agency that issues certificates of advertising content for drugs and health protection foods in verifying the conformity of actual advertising content with the content permitted by the agency and the State, thereby being able to accurately identify violations in this field; provide the Ministry of Health Inspectorate with information on the subjects committing violations in advertising drugs and health protection foods for timely handling; transfer to specialized units to prevent and handle websites advertising violating foods and health protection foods.

A man goes to people's houses in Luu Kien commune, Tuong Duong district to sell functional food products. Photo provided by local people

- Request press agencies, organizations, enterprises establishing social networks, general electronic information sites, and advertising service businesses in Vietnam to review all cooperation activities with cross-border advertising networks; not to let illegal advertising situations recur; implement necessary measures to strictly censor advertising content and positions, especially advertising links posted on their platforms; have agreements with cross-border advertising networks to comply with the provisions of Vietnamese law on advertising; consider stopping cooperation with cross-border advertising networks that do not comply.

In the first 6 months of 202022The Ministry has provided information on the registration subjects of 10 domain names (websites) posting advertisements for illegal health protection foods.yesThe law is for the Food Safety Department - Ministry of Health to work and handle.

During a surprise inspection of two advertising businesses that showed signs of violating regulations on advertising health protection foods, the Information Portal of the Ministry of Information and Communications announced 25 websites that violated the law and were not allowed to advertise.

Violations on the internet in general and violations in advertising of pharmaceutical products and health protection foods with the ability to cure "all diseases" in particular have become increasingly complicated due to objective factors such as rapid changes in advertising media, advertising algorithms and dependence on foreign advertising networks and social networking platforms...

But more importantly, due to the subjective factor when advertisers intentionally post illegal advertising content on the internet, it is very difficult for the authorities to accurately identify the advertising target. Therefore, it is necessary to have close coordination between the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Health, the Security Investigation Agency, and the local Market Management Agency to handle the issue synchronously as soon as possible.

GH