Viber spam messages "terrorize" users

Spam messages with advertising content that is contrary to Vietnamese customs and traditions.

Although Viber has only officially entered the Vietnamese market since January 2014, before that, this free Internet messaging and calling application (OTT) has continuously bothered users with a series of spam messages. The intensity of spam messages on Viber is currently getting denser, causing much frustration from the community.

Viber flooded with spam messages

On December 5, 2013, the nickname “Truong Nhan” posted on his Facebook a picture of a junk advertisement sent via Viber, advertising the service “renting a groom, renting a husband, renting a lover, renting parents, relatives. Specializing in organizing nominal weddings…”. This is considered a “heavy trash” advertising a type of service that originally operated secretly, but because the OTT environment has no control, it has gone from secret operations to public.

In fact, Viber users are increasingly annoyed by all kinds of spam messages advertising on this OTT, from functional foods specializing in weight loss for men and women, skin whitening, male and female sexual enhancement or promoting eyelash length, hair growth, treating dark spots, freckles, etc. to games, online shopping, travel and electronic cigarettes. Even advertisements for pirated games, including gambling games, are also flooding into the community via Viber.

According to information posted on the personal Twitter page of Mr. Talmon Marco - CEO of Viber, by November 29, 2013, this OTT application had up to 8 million users in Vietnam, equal to the number of Viber users in the Philippines. From that, it can be seen that the number of people being harassed, annoyed, and then feeling uncomfortable, frustrated... is also very large.

Viber has a feature that allows blocking accounts (registered with phone numbers) from sending spam messages, however this does not solve the problem completely, because those who specialize in advertising via Viber can completely change their phone numbers and register new accounts to continue sending spam messages as they do when sending spam messages via mobile subscribers.

Turning customers into victims

In Vietnam today, the most popular OTT applications are Viber, Zalo, Facebook Messenger, LINE, KakaoTalk... Among them, applications such as Zalo from Vietnam, or LINE from Japan, which also has representative offices in Vietnam, are more or less subject to the management of authorities and public pressure, so the amount of spam messages, if any, is not enough to cause outrage. Meanwhile, on Facebook Messenger, there are usually personal chats with each other or in groups, most of whom know each other, so spam messages are rarely "bombed".

However, with Viber, the amount of spam messages in a day is up to millions, the number of users is also millions, so the level of spread and impact is also corresponding. Public opinion is that Viber did not spend a penny in the Vietnamese market but had a community of nearly 10 million users, and now that it has gradually achieved its goal, Viber is gradually moving away from the interests of users by letting spam messages run rampant without any measures to prevent it. The Ministry of Information and Communications has repeatedly proposed measures to deal with the situation of spam messages, but Viber benefits from the Vietnamese community and market but does not comply with Vietnamese law.

While other OTT applications such as Zalo or LINE are always subject to the control and management of Vietnamese authorities, Viber is still "free" in the market, allowing users to be harassed and annoyed by spam messages. Viber may have marked its entry into the Vietnamese market with a grand "Purple Christmas" event in Ho Chi Minh City at the end of 2013, but it was indifferent to the situation of spam messages running rampant on its system, causing consequences for users. And as mentioned above, there are spam messages advertising services that not only violate the law but also go against the customs, cultural traditions and ethics of the Vietnamese people.

According to Labor