Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung was questioned by deputies attending the ongoing 36th session of the National Assembly Standing Committee on August 15.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung at the session 

Answering Gia Lai province’s representative Dinh Duy Vuot on measures to prevent the abuse of Internet to spread wrongful information, harming the country, inciting protests, gambling or bilking, the minister said that the ministry has set up a centre for national Internet space monitoring.

 The centre will supervise Internet attacks targeting Vietnam as well as information spreading on the online media and social media, he said.

 The minister said that each day, the centre can assess and sort about 100 pieces of news. After the introduction of the centre, the rate of negative news on the Internet space was reduced to 10 percent from 30 percent, he noted.

 Meanwhile, foreign social media service suppliers have also improved their response to Vietnam’s requests, with up to 70 percent by Facebook, about 80 percent by Youtube and 75 percent by Apple.

 Regarding the issue of “trash” SIM card, Minister Hung said that over one year, SIM cards without sufficient information have been deactivated, but there is still a large number of such cards stored in sale channels. From now to September, the ministry will focus on dealing with the issue by making mobile service suppliers to buy them back.

 Suppliers will not be allowed to provide a number of new services such as mobile money if they fail to deal with trash SIM card under their management, he revealed.

 The minister also mentioned the plan to build a “made in Vietnam” social network to prevent security risks.

 Statistics show that Vietnamese social media have drawn 65 million subscribers with growth of about 30 percent last year. With the development speed, in 2020 or 2021 at the latest, the number of Vietnamese social media subscribers will be equal to those using foreign social media channels. Experts held that Vietnamese social media developers are eyeing great opportunities in domestic market.