Lesson 1 - New War
Tuyen Quang is a mountainous province with many difficulties. Over the years, with the attention of the Party and investment from the State, the material and spiritual life of the people has been constantly improved. Although it is a mountainous area with many divisions, up to now, 100% of the villages in the province have been covered by mobile phone signals. This is a favorable condition for people to have more information channels to grasp the Party's policies, the State's legal policies and to do business. However, this is also a place to spread bad, toxic, unverified information, and if people do not have enough knowledge and alertness, they can easily be lured into the information matrix.
Na Hang youth propagate revolutionary songs.
When the "weeds" grow
Accessing and posting information has never been easier for people. However, not everyone has enough knowledge to know what content they should post and what information they should share.
On August 20, 2023, the Tuyen Quang City Police Security Team discovered that Facebook account Hoang Yen had posted and shared false information on Facebook, defaming the image of the people's police officer. Immediately after verifying and fighting, identifying the account owner as LTHY, with permanent residence in Hamlet 5, Trung Truc Commune (Yen Son), the security force requested Ms. Y. to remove the false post, write a report, make a commitment and draw up a record of administrative violations for the act of providing and sharing false information according to the provisions of Point a, Clause 1, Article 101, Decree 15/2020/ND-CP dated February 3, 2020 of the Government, with a fine of 7.5 million VND...
LTHY is just one of many cases of being punished and required to remove false information discovered and handled by the authorities. According to Tuyen Quang Provincial Police, in 2023 alone, this force has fought, prevented, removed, and deleted over 1,200 negative, toxic, and hostile news articles and photos, wrong and hostile views on the Internet and social networks. Of which, Ham Yen district removed and removed 46 news articles and photos; the Provincial Police removed and removed 158 news articles and photos; Lam Binh district removed and removed 4 news articles and photos, Yen Son removed and removed 8 news articles and photos, Son Duong removed and removed 950 news articles and photos...
Or recently, there was the story of the behavior between a teacher and a group of students in Van Phu (Son Duong). Although the incident was officially reported by the People's Committee of Son Duong district immediately after that, and those involved were disciplined according to the level of violation, on social networks, many users still continuously shared and commented. Each share button comes with many comments, each comment involves more people, not just the main character.
Unforeseen consequences
The act of posting and sharing false information does not stop at the level of administrative penalties. Many people, due to the "illusion of power" on social networks, think that the information they share and post is praised and incited by ignorant people or people with bad intentions, thinking that they are "acting on behalf of heaven" without knowing that their actions are contrary to the Party's policies and the State's laws.
The case of Le Manh Ha, (born in 1970, residing in village 23, Kim Phu commune, Tuyen Quang city) compiled, posted, and shared on social networking sites Youtube and Facebook many articles and video clips with content propagating, distorting, defaming the people's government, insulting leader Ho Chi Minh, insulting leaders of the Party and State; spreading fabricated news causing confusion among the people... Searching Le Manh Ha's residence, the Security Investigation Agency seized many documents and evidence related to the crime.
Le Manh Ha's actions have directly affected the implementation of the Party's policies and the State's laws, the strength of the people's government, and divided the great national unity bloc, so he must be severely punished. The Investigation Security Agency of Tuyen Quang Provincial Police has issued a Decision to initiate a criminal case, prosecute the accused, execute an arrest warrant for temporary detention, and a search warrant for his residence for the crime of making, storing, disseminating or propagating information, documents, and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; as prescribed in Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code.
Youth union members propagate to people to access the Internet.
Most recently, on March 27, 2024, the Investigation Police Agency of Chiem Hoa District Police issued a Decision to initiate a criminal case, prosecute the accused and execute an arrest warrant to detain Le Phu Tuan, born in 1972, residing in Vinh Son residential group, Vinh Loc town, Chiem Hoa district, Tuyen Quang province for the crime of Abusing freedoms and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals, as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 331 of the Penal Code.
According to investigation documents, from September 2023 to December 2023, Le Phu Tuan used his personal Facebook social network account to livestream many times, posting 21 videos, including unverified, unofficial content, infringing on the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of a number of State agencies in Chiem Hoa district and many other individuals.
The videos posted by Le Phu Tuan attracted many views, shares, and comments on Facebook, spread quickly on cyberspace, caused negative public opinion, undermined people's trust in the State's laws, lowered the prestige of State agencies; seriously offended the honor and dignity of law enforcement officers, and negatively affected social security, order, and safety.
According to Tuyen Quang Provincial Police, in 2023 alone, the provincial authorities coordinated, actively reviewed, investigated, collected information, established evidence and strictly handled organizations and individuals who violated the law. Accordingly, the police agency verified, clarified and handled 32 cases/32 subjects for posting false information on social networks, causing public confusion, information that insulted the reputation, honor, organizations and individuals.
Not only causing public confusion, looking more broadly, many incidents in many localities recently originated from provocative and toxic information on the Internet. Such incidents as inciting workers to strike, abolishing trade unions or causing disturbances and gatherings of people during this period often originated from provocative information on social networks.
At this time, when preparing personnel for the 14th Party Congress and the Party's fight against corruption, waste and negativity is becoming increasingly fierce, the number of violators, especially high-ranking officials violating Party discipline, is being discovered and handled, hostile, reactionary and political opportunists are taking advantage of the results of our Party's fight against corruption and negativity to spread distorted arguments and steer public opinion.
They spread the word that “fighting, preventing and combating corruption, and handling cadres and party members is “purging factions”, “internal fighting and factionalism”, “fighting for power”; disciplining cadres and party members who commit violations is just “beating drums and gongs to blind the world”, it is “us fighting ourselves”. Recently, they have also put forth distorted views, inciting public opinion that no one can believe that in Vietnam: “Fighting corruption has no forbidden zones, no exceptions”; they claim that this is “A “purge” within the Party in Vietnam”, “There is no need to establish a Central Steering Committee on preventing and combating corruption”; there is no need to associate “corruption” with “negativity”; there is no need to step up the fight against corruption; just “changing the political system” will eliminate corruption...
Mr. Tran Xuan Quyet, village 5, Kim Phu commune (Tuyen Quang city) said that sometimes when reading, he knows that the information is baseless, but the fact that this information appears many times, on many social networking platforms, makes people like him sometimes feel... "somewhat believable".
Comrade Hoang Quang Tuyen, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Na Hang District Party Committee, said: In mountainous communes where people's political awareness is limited, it is easy for hostile forces to take advantage of cyberspace to propagate sabotage, propagate false policies and guidelines of the Party, State and locality; cause conflicts between people and local authorities; encourage actions and deeds that go against good customs and traditions; propagate and spread superstition.
The characteristic of ethnic minorities is that they are very gullible. Information that is spread without verification, especially information that defames leaders, sabotages the government, causes division, etc., can easily lure people, have a very negative impact on security and order, and destroy the great unity of the whole nation.
Analyzing from a legal perspective, Lawyer Truong Quoc Hoe, Director of Interla Law Office in Hanoi, said: “The reason fake news and toxic news have a place to live is because the legal regulations on penalties for spreading fake news, false news and toxic news on social networks are still not strict enough, and the penalties are not strong enough to deter.
Therefore, it is necessary to increase the level of administrative penalties as well as prison sentences for those who intentionally violate the law. In addition, the legal system on ensuring network security is not complete, causing many difficulties in detecting, investigating and handling crimes. At the same time, the development of laws in the field of network security is also subject to many external influences...".
Although there have been many measures to manage, prevent and handle fake news, bad news and toxic news on cyberspace from State management agencies, this negative information is still continuously produced and is difficult to completely prevent.
Together with all levels, Tuyen Quang, with the determination not to let "weeds" spread, affecting the people's trust in the Party and the State, has synchronized solutions, determined to build a clean, healthy and safe cyberspace.
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