A woman practices live streaming on social media during training in Hanoi in July 2021. Photo by VnExpress.
The Ministry of Information and Communications has proposed several regulations to strengthen the control of live streaming activities on social networks like Facebook and Youtube.
Cross-border social media should require account operators with 10,000 or more followers in Vietnam to provide contact information to the ministry, according to a draft decree.
It also requires websites and applications with 100,000 or more frequent users per month to register with the ministry.
Only registered accounts can host live videos to sell goods and services.
Social media platforms will also be asked to block or remove flagged content within 24 hours at the “justified†request of Vietnamese people and organizations affected by such content.
The ministry estimates that at the end of June, Vietnam’s top 10 social media platforms had a total of around 80 million users.
But the popularity of these platforms is low compared to foreign competitors like Facebook with 65 million users, Youtube (60 million) and TikTok (20 million).
These platforms did not fully respect Vietnamese laws, according to the ministry. Much of the content is fake news, causing instability and frustration in society and inequalities between domestic and foreign companies.
Many individuals and organizations use these platforms to live stream and provide incorrect and offensive information about individuals and organizations, the ministry said.
