Violations of regulations regarding responsible use of social media services can result in fines of up to 50,000,000 VND.

Reply:

On May 15, 2026, the Government issued Decree 174/2026/ND-CP stipulating administrative penalties for violations in the fields of postal services, telecommunications, radio frequencies, electronic transactions, and information technology (effective from July 1, 2026). Specifically, Article 95 of this Decree stipulates the penalties for violations of regulations on responsible use of social network services as follows:

1. A fine of VND 20,000,000 to VND 30,000,000 shall be imposed for the act of using social networks to commit any of the following acts:

a) Providing or sharing false information, untrue information, distorted information, slander, defamation, or information that insults the reputation of agencies, organizations, or the honor and dignity of individuals;

b) Providing or sharing information that promotes social vices, prostitution, or human trafficking; posting obscene or depraved information; undermining the national customs and traditions, social morality, or public health, but not to the extent of incurring criminal liability;

c) Providing or sharing information that meticulously describes acts of stabbing, killing, accidents, horror, or gruesome events;

d) Providing or sharing journalistic, literary, artistic, or published works without the consent of the intellectual property rights holder, or which have not been authorized for circulation, or which have been banned from circulation or confiscated;

d) Advertising, promoting, or sharing information about prohibited goods and services;

e) Providing or sharing images of maps of Vietnam that do not show or incorrectly depict national sovereignty;

g) Providing or sharing links to online information containing prohibited content;

h) Exploiting social media to produce content in the form of news reports, investigative reports, and journalistic interviews;

i) Press agencies fail to notify the authorities when establishing accounts, community pages, content channels, and community groups on social media platforms both domestically and internationally as required by regulations;

k) Account holders, content channel owners, community page owners, and community group administrators on social networks fail to prevent or remove information that violates the law, information affecting the legitimate rights and interests of other organizations and individuals, or information affecting children posted on their accounts, community pages, community groups, or content channels when requested by competent authorities.

2. A fine of VND 30,000,000 to VND 50,000,000 shall be imposed for any of the following acts:

a) Providing or sharing information that distorts history, denies revolutionary achievements, undermines national unity, insults religion, discriminates on the basis of gender, or discriminates racially, but not to the extent of incurring criminal liability;

b) Disclosing information classified as state secrets, personal privacy secrets, and other secrets that do not yet warrant criminal prosecution;

c) Providing or sharing false information that causes public panic, damages socio-economic activities, hinders the operation of state agencies or public officials, or infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of other agencies, organizations, or individuals, but not to the extent of criminal prosecution.

3. Remedial measures:

a) To compel the removal of false or misleading information, or information that violates the law, resulting from acts that violate the provisions of Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article;

b) To forcibly suspend accounts, community pages, community groups, or content channels due to violations of the regulations specified in Clause 2 of this Article.