The immediate consequence is to disrupt people's hearts, affect social order and security, gradually transform and reduce people's trust in the Party, and pose a danger to the Party and the regime from the grassroots if not promptly adjusted.
Lesson 1: Receiving information in the "internet says so" style
Surveying information reception among workers, farmers, students, Catholics and ethnic minorities in a number of provinces and cities across the country... helps us to see clearly the reality of information gaps and propaganda of the Party and the political system at the grassroots level.
Don't watch the news, don't listen to the radio
At around 5:30 p.m., on the main road from But Son town to the coastal communes of Hoang Hoa district (Thanh Hoa), many workers were returning home from work. As usual, at 6 p.m., Ms. Le Thi Tinh in Khang Doai village, Hoang Yen commune returned home. She started cleaning the house and preparing dinner for her family. At this time, Hoang Yen commune radio station rebroadcast the "Current Events" program of Voice of Vietnam.
Ms. Tinh said: "The commune radio station still broadcasts regularly in the morning and evening, but honestly, because I'm so busy, I don't pay attention to what information is available. My family usually eats dinner early, finishing at 7pm, then lets the children study so we don't watch the news on TV. When I'm done, I check social media. Therefore, I get a lot of information through social media."
The above situation is not only common in young families in rural areas but also not uncommon in urban areas of Thanh Hoa province. In Hoang Long Industrial Park, Thanh Hoa City, there are more than 3,000 workers renting accommodation. At 7 p.m., entering the accommodation areas, most workers after work are busy preparing a rather simple dinner, the rest of the time they "make friends" with their phones to watch movies, surf Zalo, Facebook, TikTok...
This reality shows that the only means for young, single workers is the mobile phone, which helps them connect with the outside world. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh (20 years old), from Tho Xuan district (Thanh Hoa), confided: "After stressful, tiring working hours, eating hastily, we just stay at home to rest and entertain ourselves via the phone... All the information we receive from the outside is only through the mobile phone".
In Nghe An province, when night fell, we were taken around the village by comrade Nguyen Van Tri, Party Secretary of Trung Thanh hamlet, Dien Hong commune (Dien Chau) on a motorbike. This is a hamlet where 95% of the people are Catholic. When the clock showed 19:15, most of the families in the hamlet closed their doors, only turning on the lights, the space was very quiet. Comrade Nguyen Van Tri explained: "At this time, Catholics go to church to worship, so not many families watch the 19:00 "News" program of Vietnam Television. The time people go to church is usually from 4:30 to 5:30 in the morning and from 19:30 to 20:30 in the evening".
The next morning, we went to meet the family of parishioner Nguyen Van Thanh in Trung Thanh hamlet. Along the inter-hamlet road, many forms of visual propaganda through the system of billboards installed by the government, clearly designed with slogans and local socio-economic development indicators. Mr. Thanh said: "I go to work all day, go to church in the morning and evening, when I have free time, I go online to check information, if there is anything happening in the village, the cadres will announce it on the loudspeaker".
From Nghe An, we traveled 150km to Chuoi village, a highland commune of Lam Hoa (Tuyen Hoa, Quang Binh). Chuoi village has 65 households with 262 people, most of whom are Ma Lieng people of the Chut ethnic group. Comrade Cao Van The, Secretary of the Chuoi village Party Cell, shared: "Chui village has electricity and television, so the lives of Ma Lieng people have gradually changed. People have more access to useful information channels."
However, when interacting with many people in the village, we can see the "poverty" in accessing information of the people here. In the stilt house, Mrs. Pham Thi Luong said: "The whole family has a TV but it broke more than two years ago; the commune's loudspeaker has not been broadcast for a long time. In this residential area of more than 10 households, no house has a TV, the people are still very poor! Young people here also use smartphones but they only go online to watch movies, listen to music... Now I only know all information related to the village and the commune when the officials inform me".
During the survey at the grassroots level, we found that: Types of information and propaganda at the grassroots level include: Radio and television stations; electronic information portals/pages, newsletters of agencies and grassroots units; commune post offices and cultural points; commune (ward, town) legal bookcases, agencies and grassroots units; cultural houses, community cultural and learning centers; libraries; visual propaganda activities; activities of reporters and propagandists... are basically deployed and operated quite regularly and orderly, but it seems that the effectiveness is still something worth discussing, even worrying and worrying.
It is undeniable that the grassroots information and propaganda system has made an important contribution to creating consensus among the people, implementing solutions for socio-economic development, ensuring political security, social order and safety, and maintaining political stability at the grassroots level; at the same time, through that, grassroots Party committees and authorities grasp the ideological situation, thoughts and aspirations of the people, thereby having solutions suitable to the grassroots reality.
However, from actual surveys in localities, it shows that: The proportion of people in the plains, urban areas and border areas between the ages of 18 and 55 receives information mainly on social networks via mobile phones; while the elderly and retired officials often receive information through radio and television programs, books and newspapers. This is creating an imbalance in both content, methods and people on the Party's "information and propaganda battlefield" with bad and toxic information, opposing the Party and the State on cyberspace. This is really a big gap in providing official information to people at the grassroots level.
Difficult to distinguish between real and fake information
With the rapid development of digital technology in the world of information on social networking platforms, it is difficult for people to distinguish between authentic information and fake news.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Duyen (born in 1978) in Kim Lien hamlet, Quan Hanh town (Nghi Loc, Nghe An) goes to the market to sell goods every day. In her free time, she often uses her phone to surf social networking sites such as Facebook, Zalo, TikTok. Receiving a lot of information, especially online shopping and selling sites, online jobs; advertising medicines and all kinds of other services and content about officials, government levels... Ms. Duyen admits that she cannot distinguish between real information and fake information, from state agencies and from organizations and individuals with bad intentions, fraud or defamation of officials.
Indeed, when we visited the communes, we found that every locality took advantage of social networks to inform and propagate to the people. The communes basically had fanpages and Zalo groups of the government and some organizations such as: Commune Police, Youth Union, Women's Union... However, the people were not interested in the information on the local pages and groups. On the other hand, some fanpages or personal accounts of local leaders were exploited by forces using images to spread false information, making people not know what was true and what was false.
We conducted a short interview with Mr. Truong Van Nghia (45 years old, worker) in Thuong Nam village, Hai Nhan commune (Nghi Son, Thanh Hoa).
- What channels do you mainly receive information through?
- Mainly through social network Facebook.
- Do you often like, share, and comment on pages, groups, and forums?
- Sometimes.
- Have you heard about information related to Party officials and our regime that some social networking sites often mention?
- Yes.
- Do you think it's right or wrong?
- I don't know either. It's hard to know if it's right or wrong?
Comrade Nguyen Thi Thuy, Secretary of the Party Committee of Hoang Yen Commune (Hoang Hoa, Thanh Hoa) shared the story: "There were many days when I came home from work and talked with villagers, many people asked me: Is the information that Mr. X is about to be disciplined that has been posted on social networking sites for the past few days true, comrade? What was the reason for Mr. Y's arrest? Or was it due to internal strife? Did you know? After investigating, it became clear that this was information that reactionary social networking accounts were spreading, distorting, and speculating about the fight against corruption and negativity that our Party is carrying out. However, from the people's concern, it partly shows a reality: People find it difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood on cyberspace".
With the advantage of rapid spread, some individuals and organizations take advantage of the "information gap" when official news sources have not yet been published to spread information to dominate cross-border network platforms. They take advantage of people's curiosity and inquisitiveness with distorted information about issues of public concern. Many organizations and individuals take advantage of logos and images of party organizations, governments, unions and even officials at all levels to use as representative images, thereby spreading false and distorted information, intentionally causing misunderstandings for the public.
Comrade Cao Xuan Tin, Head of the Propaganda Department of Tuyen Hoa District Party Committee (Quang Binh) said: "Normally, fake news is created for the purpose of profiteering to attract viewers so that the online community can like, share, comment, and create revenue for the account owner. However, many fake news are created for the purpose of violating national security, social order and safety, and the rights and interests of organizations and individuals. Many fake news contain private, fabricated, distorted, or mixed true and false content to terrorize the spirit and create public opinion on the online community, serving dark intentions, causing harm to political stability and social order and safety".
This is a danger that needs to be warned about early. Bad elements take advantage of the "information gap" and people's limited understanding to spread false and distorted information, first to disturb people's minds, then to defame party organizations and authorities at all levels, with the aim of losing people's trust in the leadership of the Party and the administration and management of the State. We will discuss the consequences of receiving false information in the next article.
According to statistics, by April 2022, Vietnam had 93.5 million smartphone subscribers, the percentage of adults using smartphones reached about 73.5%. By February 2022, there were 76.95 million social network users in Vietnam, the number of social network users in Vietnam at the beginning of 2022 was equivalent to 78.1% of the population. |
KHANH TRINH - MINH TU - DUY THANH (According to qdnd.vn)
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