Summoned and handled 52 individuals with violations related to Covid-19 prevention and control work

Tan Ky District Police have just worked with NVH (born 2002), in Quy Hau hamlet, Ky Tan commune, Tan Ky district (Nghe An), a 12th grade student at a high school in the district, about posting and sharing false information.

Previously, on January 17, 2020 and February 24, 2020, NVH used his personal Facebook account to post 3 articles with false content about disturbing public order and resisting law enforcement officers in Dong Tam commune, My Duc district (Hanoi) and false information about the Covid-19 epidemic situation in Vinh Phuc province. Through verification, the content NVH posted and shared was false, distorting the nature of the incident, causing confusion in public opinion.

At the meeting, Tan Ky District Police explained to NVH the nature and extent of the violation, and requested NVH to remove the article, post an article to correct the information, and commit not to post, share, or comment on articles with bad or negative content that affect the security and order situation, social order and safety, and cause public confusion.

Currently, Tan Ky District Police are completing procedures to handle the case according to the law.

That is one of the specific cases in which in recent days, the authorities of Nghe An province have summoned, clarified and handled many cases of taking advantage of the Covid-19 epidemic situation to post fabricated information about the Covid-19 epidemic situation. For example, the case of people returning from epidemic areas having to be quarantined for monitoring was immediately distorted into a new case of the disease. There are even people who take this opportunity to fabricate and accuse the authorities of concealing information. In addition, many individuals have taken advantage of the epidemic situation to increase the price of medical masks against regulations; defraud and appropriate property such as fraudulently selling medical masks via social networks...

The Internal Political Security Department (Nghe An Police) summoned 8 young people who posted false information on social networks, causing public confusion.

In particular, the act of fabricating and spreading false information about the epidemic, claiming to be "positive" for Covid-19 to attract many "likes" and shares on social networks. Or sharing on social networks unscientific methods such as claiming that drinking beer, alcohol, drinking Dettol (a household disinfectant) can prevent Covid-19, disinfecting with a hair dryer... regardless of the consequences, affecting the disease prevention and control work of the authorities.

Faced with the complicated and dangerous developments of fake news, false information and other violations of the law related to the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, the authorities in Nghe An have taken drastic measures, promptly detected, clarified, summoned and handled many violators.

From January 28 to March 10, authorities in Nghe An discovered, summoned, and handled 52 individuals who violated the work of preventing and fighting the Covid-19 epidemic in the area. Of these, 36 individuals posted and shared false information; 2 subjects fraudulently sold medical masks to appropriate property; 5 individuals and pharmacies illegally increased the price of medical masks; 1 case of forging documents and materials on epidemic prevention and control of agencies and organizations; 7 individuals shared fake information.

Thanh Chuong District Police are working with the subject who posted false information about the Covid-19 epidemic with 3 deaths. Photo: Archive

It can be said that, in the face of the complicated developments of the Covid-19 epidemic in many countries as at present, cases of spreading false information affect local security and cause public panic in the area, making it difficult for authorities to effectively prevent and control the epidemic.

In that context, it requires each citizen to be extremely calm, clear-headed, responsible for themselves and society in receiving and processing information, closely monitoring information on official channels, not listening to or spreading unverified information, and promptly notifying authorities of cases of posting fabricated or untrue information about the epidemic.