Avoid being “trapped” by fake websites

With the emergence of websites impersonating organizations and agencies, we see more clearly the intentions of opportunists and bad guys colluding with hostile forces to carry out plots to sabotage the country's achievements.

Every reader should be alert, always be a smart reader, and be vigilant to avoid being "trapped" by fake websites.

Therefore, we must be vigilant, extremely alert, clear-headed, and not be "trapped" or "enchanted" by the "information matrix" full of political calculations of bad elements.

Deliberately creating a fake website of a central agency with bad intentions

Recently, on the social network Facebook, a fake website of the Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of Vietnam appeared.

On April 3, the title “Official instructions from the Central Propaganda Department on the case of “Kissing a girl in an elevator” appeared on this page. After 18 hours of posting, the article attracted 1,600 comments and nearly 1,000 shares.

Previously, on March 11, after the authorities announced the "Draft National Standard TCVN 12607: 2019 on Code of Practice for Fish Sauce Production", taking advantage of conflicting information about the content of this draft, a fake fanpage with the name "Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of Vietnam" immediately appeared on Facebook.

This fanpage has posted many articles with false information to intentionally mislead public opinion.

After the appearance of this fake fanpage, a representative of the Central Propaganda Department affirmed that this is an extremely dangerous act because there are subjects who deliberately take advantage of social networks to impersonate agencies, units, organizations, and individuals, including the Central Propaganda Department.

This action not only negatively affects the operations of related organizations and individuals, but also violates the law on the use and posting of information content.

The impersonation of the Central Propaganda Department's fanpage is a malicious plot because the Central Propaganda Department is the strategic advisory body of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Politburo and the Secretariat on the Party's guidelines, viewpoints and policies in the fields of propaganda, press, publishing, culture, arts, science, technology, education, training and some social fields.

For many years, the Central Propaganda Department has always created favorable conditions for press agencies to properly implement their principles and purposes, and operate in compliance with press laws, but without censoring, controlling, or interfering in the professional and technical work of press agencies.

Therefore, there is no such thing as the Central Propaganda Department using social networks to "direct and orient" information about incidents such as "fish sauce, dipping sauce", or child harassment in elevators... The Central Propaganda Department does not act on behalf of and never interferes with the functions and duties of state management agencies.

Beware of the "fake it" scheme

Not now, but in recent years, some elements and forces from outside have taken advantage of freedom of information, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press to create websites and blogs that "claim" to be information pages of some leaders of the Party, State, National Assembly, Government, Army, Police, and some departments, branches, and cities directly under the Central Government.

These websites and blogs all have in common the fact that they are designed as online information pages, with a similar interface. The language displayed is mostly Vietnamese and some pages have a part in English.

Created in the form of a news information page, with many sections with a clear layout, providing updated, diverse information with illustrative photos, these fake websites are quite eye-catching and attract readers' searches. That is, on the outside, it is just like a website, blog with an owner and a management agency.

But in fact, the establishment of these websites is intended to provide mixed true and false information, thereby belittling, distorting, and fabricating stories about "leadership and direction" that are not in accordance with the functions and tasks of agencies, departments, and branches in general, and of some senior leaders in particular.

The above mentioned behavior has violated Vietnamese law. Clause 3, Article 12 of the 2017 Law on Information Technology stipulates that “It is strictly forbidden to fake the electronic information pages of other organizations and individuals”.

One of the prohibited acts is also specifically stipulated in Clause 2, Article 4 of Circular 14/2010/TT-BTTTT of the Ministry of Information and Communications, which is: "Creating fake electronic information pages of other individuals, organizations, and businesses".

The public and illegal operation of websites impersonating some organizations, agencies and individuals all contain bad political motives. It is sophisticated in that, at first, these websites wanted to attract and gain the trust of readers, so they proactively provided fast, sensitive and accurate information like the official and reputable press agencies of Vietnam.

But later on and at some point after "bribing" the readers, the owners of these fake websites can install some ambiguous true-false, right-wrong information in a "cheating" style to distort information, distract public opinion and cause unpredictable consequences.

There is a proverb "Fake becomes real" with the meaning of criticizing and warning against the acts of deliberate and extremely sophisticated forgery, silently turning the fake into the real, even some deceitful acts are repeated, reoccurring frequently and continuously.

Therefore, each reader should be alert, always be a smart reader, and be vigilant to avoid being "trapped".