Man prosecuted for posting over 200 unverified news about Covid-19

On March 27, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (Ministry of Public Security) invited a Facebook account owner with more than 85,000 followers to its headquarters to clarify the act of posting illegal information related to Covid-19.

False information posted on social networks. Photo: Ministry of Public Security

This person posted nearly 300 articles without official information from the Ministry of Health, becoming a source of spreading false information that has attracted special attention from the public on social networks recently, the Cyber ​​Security Department said.

This person's actions were accused of affecting proactive disease prevention work in some localities, causing people to panic, evacuate, change their residence, and hoard food, causing insecurity and disorder.

At the headquarters of the Cyber ​​Security Department, he said he had collected information about the Covid-19 situation from many unverified sources, then edited and inserted his personal views. Some articles included images of documents from authorities when they had not been officially announced about information about people infected with nCoV or needing to be quarantined...

The Cyber ​​Security Department has forced this person to remove 216 articles with unverified information and comments with distorted and false content about Covid-19 in Vietnam. Authorities are consolidating more documents for processing.

Lawyer Truong Anh Tu, Chairman of TAT Law firm, said that Article 8 of the Law on Cyber ​​Security stipulates: "Individuals and organizations are prohibited from providing false information that causes confusion among the people, causes damage to socio-economic activities, causes difficulties for the activities of state agencies or public servants, and infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of other agencies, organizations and individuals."