Many opinions support the proposal that there should be regulations requiring social media accounts to be identified before being allowed to comment to combat fake and toxic news.
As reported by Thanh Nien , during the question-and-answer session at the 17th meeting of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council on July 16, when answering delegates about solutions to handle bad and toxic news on the internet, Mr. Lam Dinh Thang, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communications, suggested that there should be regulations requiring identified social network accounts to be allowed to comment. Identifying an account means that the account owner will have to provide personal information, such as: real name, phone number, email address or identification documents to prove his or her identity.
The proposal to identify accounts on social networks received many favorable opinions. PHUC KHA
Analyzing further the situation of fake news, Mr. Thang said that information on social networks is provided by two sources: domestic websites with clear origins and licenses and websites of unknown origin, cross-border platforms used by many people such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok. Currently, most of the fake news is spread on these foreign social networks. The common point of these social networks is that they do not have a legal representative in Vietnam, use international domain names, and servers located abroad. When Vietnamese authorities request removal, businesses avoid it. Regarding subjective reasons, Mr. Thang said that the coordination of authorities to identify fake information is currently not tight and not timely. Therefore, it is necessary to have regulations on the responsibility of ministries and branches in identifying fake and toxic news, especially having a person in charge of concluding fake news and a spokesperson. For Ho Chi Minh City, the Director of the Department of Information and Communications said that he is consulting on the establishment of a Center for handling fake news and coordination regulations between departments and localities to determine the process, processing time, and responsibilities of each department. Mr. Thang also proposed adjusting regulations in the direction that social media accounts must be identified before they can comment, including cross-border accounts.
Increase user responsibility
Responding to the above information, many Thanh Nien readers said that this is a necessary solution to control bad and toxic information and negative behavior online. "I fully support the proposal to fully identify social media accounts before posting, commenting or live streaming. This regulation will help raise users' sense of responsibility for the content they share, while encouraging people to consider carefully and use appropriate language before posting information on social networks. Hopefully, if passed, this regulation will contribute to building a healthier, more civilized and positive online environment," said Thanh Bao. Sharing the same opinion, Thanh Tran commented: "I fully support this proposal, it should be implemented immediately. This is a necessary solution to solve the situation where many anonymous users take advantage of cyberspace to insult, curse, and propagate harmful information without being held responsible." Meanwhile, BĐ Linh Nguyen wrote: "Social networks are currently flooded with too much "junk" information, negatively affecting society and the awareness of young people. It is necessary to have more strict regulations to deal with violations". "If this can be done, false information and negative behavior will certainly decrease significantly in cyberspace. Anonymity on social networks has created conditions for behaviors such as spreading fake news, fraud, insulting, defaming others... Identification can help to hold people accountable, thereby deterring and minimizing these behaviors. In addition, when users know they are no longer anonymous, they will be more careful in posting information and commenting, contributing to building a more civilized online environment", BĐ Thuy Quynh commented.
Need for synchronous coordination
Despite supporting, BĐ Vy Nguyen also wondered: "In my opinion, this is the right solution, not only helping to raise users' sense of responsibility but also contributing to improving the general knowledge of the community. However, identifying millions of accounts is a big challenge in terms of technology and cost. Not to mention, controlling fake accounts and accounts from abroad is not simple with our current technical level". Similarly, BĐ Nguyen Quyen commented: "I fully support this proposal to prevent bad information from affecting social life. However, there should be measures to protect personal information when identifying. In addition, instead of focusing on identification, I think the fine for violations on social networks should be increased, at least from 100 to 200 million VND. The current fine is too light, not enough to deter acts of attracting likes and views at all costs".
BĐ Xuân Nam believes that the solution to identify social network accounts is not a "magic wand" that can completely solve the problems in cyberspace today. "Building a healthy network environment is not simply applying a single solution, but requires synchronous coordination between many factors. Specifically, it is necessary to promote education to raise user awareness, improve the legal system related to network security, and continuously develop technology to detect and prevent malicious information, in parallel with ensuring privacy for users," this BĐ added.
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