FOREIGN INFORMATION WORK ON CYBERSPACE TO SERVE THE TASK OF PROTECTING THE VIETNAMESE FATHERLAND (FINAL PART)

The position, role and importance of information technology in cyberspace serving the task of protecting the Vietnamese homeland

Foreign information work (FI) is an important part of the Party's ideological, propaganda and foreign affairs work, which was trained and directly deployed by President Ho Chi Minh to serve the cause of revolutionary struggle, national construction and defense. Throughout the history of Vietnam's revolution, FI has played an important role in propagating and disseminating Marxism-Leninism in the country, creating and gaining the sympathy and support of people around the world , contributing to the great victories of the nation in the struggle for independence, freedom and national unification as well as national construction.

In the Document of the 6th National Party Congress, the Party attaches importance to foreign propaganda work and requires strict management of publishing, information, press, and film work. On June 13, 1992, the Secretariat of the 7th tenure issued Directive No. 11-CT/TW “On innovation and strengthening of information and communication work”, which affirmed: “Since the 6th Party Congress, Vietnam's information and communication work has achieved some good results in introducing the reformed Vietnam to foreign countries, contributing to the division of opposing forces, gradually breaking the siege and embargo and expanding relations with countries in the Southeast Asian region, diversifying international relations, gaining the sympathy and cooperation of many countries and forces in the world...” , while emphasizing that “the world situation is changing very rapidly and complicatedly... many people and countries in the world want to learn about the path and results of our country's innovation and our country and people; we need to make the people of the world understand our foreign policy to gain world public opinion and create a favorable international environment for the cause of building and defending the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Socialism. The work of propaganda must be innovated and strengthened to meet the requirements of the revolution in the new situation" .

Politburo member and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited the display of digital technology equipment and applications at the first Digital Transformation Conference of the People's Public Security Sector in 2022.

By the end of the 20th century, with the strong development of the information technology revolution, especially the outbreak of the global information network (Internet) was widely used. The Internet became an environment for providing, sharing, exchanging, exploiting and using information for all people; a priceless treasure of human knowledge when accumulated along with development, stored and provided to the community. Most countries are aware of the development trend and the importance of the Internet in the information age for social development and have appropriate policies to exploit the strengths of the Internet to serve national and ethnic interests associated with the task of protecting the Fatherland. Promoting the development of the Internet to serve the interests of human society has become a trend affirmed with strong international commitments of countries. Vietnam is no exception, since November 1997 Vietnam officially connected to the global Internet.

Under the impact of the scientific and technological revolution, creating conditions for new media to affirm their advantages in speed, information content, accessibility and public attraction, enriching communication methods worldwide, becoming tools for informing and propagating political messages, promoting the country's image, assessing public opinion, influencing people's thoughts and feelings. However, it also creates legal gaps and negative trends for reactionary, hostile forces and political opportunists to thoroughly exploit in order to promote activities of spreading bad and toxic information, distorting propaganda, sabotaging Vietnam's relations with other countries, affecting the international image and reputation of Vietnam and the Communist Party of Vietnam ; inciting extreme political views against our Party, State, army and people; dividing the great national unity bloc, creating skeptical public opinion, reducing people's trust in the revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation.

In that context, on February 14, 2012, the Politburo (11th tenure) issued Conclusion No. 16-KL/TW on the Strategy for Developing Information and Communications for the 2011-2020 period, which determined: Information and Communications is an important part of foreign affairs and ideological work to help the world understand the Party and State's guidelines and policies; Vietnam's viewpoints and stance on international and regional issues; introduce the great achievements of the renovation process; about the country, people, history, and national culture; fight against false and distorted arguments about Vietnam, thereby gaining the sympathy, support, cooperation, and assistance of international friends, the consensus and contributions of our compatriots abroad to the cause of national construction and defense. TTĐN also helps people in the country selectively absorb the experiences and cultural quintessence of people around the world, contributing to the struggle with people around the world for peace, cooperation and development.

After 10 years of implementing Conclusion No. 16-KL/TW on the Strategy for Developing Information Technology for the 2011-2020 period, information technology work has achieved many important results, the content and methods of implementing information technology work have been increasingly innovated and diversified. In order to improve the quality of information technology work, meet the requirements and development tasks of the country in the new period, the Central Executive Committee is drafting the Information Technology Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045, which once again affirms the position, role and importance of information technology work in the new situation. Accordingly, information technology is identified as: (1) an important part of the Party's ideological, propaganda and foreign affairs work; (2) introducing to the world the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's policies and laws, and the achievements of the cause of national construction and defense; (3) Expressing proactive and responsible viewpoints and stances on issues of Vietnam's core interests and strategic significance, international issues in line with the common values ​​of progressive humanity; (4) Promoting the beauty of the country, people, history, culture, heritage, scientific knowledge of Vietnam, spreading the system of national and ethnic values, the system of cultural values ​​and Vietnamese people; (5) providing international information to the people in the country in line with Vietnam's conditions; selecting and absorbing the quintessence of world culture, enriching the treasure of Vietnamese knowledge and culture; (6) informing and refuting false information and distorted arguments about Vietnam, protecting the Party's ideological foundation. Thereby contributing to strongly arousing aspirations, raising patriotism; promoting the will of independence, self-reliance, national pride, creating endogenous strength, and taking advantage of external forces; Increase soft power, enhance national comprehensive strength to serve the cause of national construction and development.

Content and methods of TTĐN activities on cyberspace to serve the task of protecting the Vietnamese homeland

To effectively implement the work of information technology, we need to correctly and fully identify the subjects of information technology work, specifically as follows: (i) the subjects of information technology work abroad are international organizations, institutions, politicians, scholars, press, businessmen, international friends, people of other countries and Vietnamese people living, studying, working and working abroad; (ii) the subjects of information technology work in the country are foreigners living, studying and working in Vietnam, diplomatic missions, international organizations, news agencies, foreign investors, tourists. Officials, party members and people of all walks of life in the country.

Educating the young generation about revolutionary ideals, ethics, and cultural lifestyles on cyberspace plays a particularly important role in the 4.0 era.

The content of information technology activities on cyberspace includes : (1) Official information about Vietnam is information about the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's policies and laws; information about the situation in Vietnam in various fields; information about Vietnam's history and other information; (2) information promoting the image of Vietnam is information introducing and promoting the image of the country, people, history, culture, and potential for cooperation and development of Vietnam; (3) information about the world situation in Vietnam is information about the world situation in various fields, information about the relationship between Vietnam and other countries and other information to promote political, social, cultural, defense and security relations between Vietnam and other countries; serving the country's economic development; promoting Vietnam's international integration process; (4) Explanatory and clarifying information are documents, materials, records, and arguments that aim to explain and clarify false information about Vietnam in various fields; (5) other types of information technology activities.

Methods of TTĐN on cyberspace:

Before the Internet exploded, traditional methods of information dissemination included: (1) organizing the production of programs and press products to disseminate information and propaganda, fighting against false arguments posted on mass media and electronic information at home and abroad; (2) organizing press conferences, press releases, and responding to interviews through official statements of state management agencies; official statements at international events and forums, international press conferences, domestic press conferences; periodic press conferences and press briefings; (3) organizing communication campaigns, trade, investment, and tourism promotion events... held in Vietnam and abroad; (4) publishing information and propaganda publications such as books, newspapers, tapes and discs in Vietnamese and foreign languages; (5) through economic, cultural and educational exchanges, people-to-people exchanges...

Nowadays, with the strong development of the Internet, the method of propaganda has gradually transformed from the traditional method of propaganda to the use of digital media and social media, specifically: (1) promoting propaganda and fighting against refuting on cyberspace through newspapers, magazines and electronic information pages; TV channels broadcast on digital platforms; social networks such as Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter...; (2) organizing events, exhibitions, conferences and some foreign affairs activities online or directly combined with online to bring positive results; (3) digitizing propaganda publications in Vietnamese and foreign languages ​​to post and broadcast on cyberspace to serve propaganda work.

Some breakthrough solutions on information technology in national defense are currently being implemented:

First, Upgrade the Vietnam portal . The foreign electronic information portal (access address https://vietnam.vn ) is a platform to bring Vietnam to the world and bring the world to Vietnam. With a huge amount of information synthesized from more than 100 major press agencies, 63 electronic information portals of provinces/cities and other data sources to update and provide fast, multi-dimensional information about Vietnam. Every day, there are about more than 10,000 news articles updated and over 1,000 outstanding news articles selected to display on the page's categories.

https://vietnam.vn is also a place to introduce good experiences and good lessons in the world to the Vietnamese people, introduce successful Vietnamese individuals and businesses in the world. In addition, it also connects electronic information channels and multimedia information between foreign information activities with agencies, units, organizations and individuals on the Internet.

Vietnam image promotion platform applies automatic news scanning technology combined with artificial intelligence with many advanced features, helping to increase efficiency and save time and editing costs.

The Portal system includes the following components: software system; security layer, content distribution network and technical infrastructure serving the collection, management, processing of information, storage, publication, transmission and exchange of information and data serving the work of TTĐN.

The portal integrates Google Translate's translation tool, helping users avoid having to spend extra time searching for a translation tool.

April 13, 2023, launched the Vietnam image promotion platform. After 45 days of officially launching the service, although the technical system, search engine optimization system, content quality and site techniques still face certain limitations, but the site traffic has also achieved the first progress. Specifically:

The number of visits in April 2023 on the page https://vietnam.vn was nearly 74,000 pageviews, then in May 2023 the number of visits reached 185,083 pageviews (an increase of 250% compared to April).

Website rankings in Vietnam have been continuously increasing over the months. Specifically, the rankings in Vietnam from February 2023 to March 2023 increased by 7,109 places and continued to increase by 2,904 places in April 2023. The access rankings in 114 newspapers and information sites in April 2023 are currently at 86/114 (up 24 places compared to March).

Second, Chat GPT - How to make AI have "Party spirit ". ChatGPT is a global phenomenon because of its new and attractive features, as well as because of users' curiosity and its rapid spread on social networks. However, to use ChatGPT practically and effectively, users must have background knowledge about the issue that needs to be looked up, enough to distinguish between accurate and reliable information and must cross-check from many sources of information, thereby using chatbots safely and effectively, avoiding false information or violations of law, copyright, etc. ChatGPT can be an opportunity if we implement well some of the following basic solutions: (i) provide correct and authentic knowledge information, especially information in English and other popular languages ​​in a complete, clear, and easy-to-understand manner on the internet environment; (ii) actively cooperate directly with ChatGPT Owner OpenAI, using OpenAI's engine to develop official information data about Vietnam; (iii) effectively manage input knowledge, maximally eliminate bad, distorted, slanderous, defamatory information, etc. from cyberspace; (iv) have a content development team that regularly interacts, provides, builds, and trains chatbots with official information about Vietnam, while detecting, deleting, and correcting false information and many other solutions, etc.; (v) widely propagate to the public using ChatGPT to use the tool scientifically, civilly, and for the right purpose, contributing to building an accurate database about Vietnam for ChatGPT.

On the contrary, if we do not implement the above solutions well, ChatGPT will not be able to distinguish between accurate information and distorted, defamatory information, and will inadvertently spread false information, even distorted, fabricated information like some examples cited above, which are widespread and very difficult to control on the internet today.

Third, the information technology database . Knowledge is power. Knowledge in the digital space is data that is digitized, classified in a purposeful, scientific and easily accessible way. For Chat GPT or the Vietnam.vn portal to operate effectively, there needs to be a large and sophisticated enough information technology database. Decree 72/2015/ND-CP of the Government on the management of information technology activities stipulates Article 12 "information technology database", which assigns the Ministry of Information and Communications to build an information technology database, ministries, branches, localities, and press agencies are responsible for developing data and integrating it into the general information technology database developed by the Ministry of Information and Communications. When formed, the information technology database will have:

(1) Digitalization function, proactive data collection, integration from data serving the information of ministries, ministerial-level agencies, provincial People's Committees and relevant agencies and application of technology to proactively collect data from foreign press opinions (social networks, electronic newspapers, forums, etc.); (2) Use new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence , Big Data , social networks , etc. to detect false information affecting the reputation and image of Vietnam, monitor the behavior and activities of suspicious subjects on the network environment, provide information content of all individuals interested in Vietnam (tourists, international journalists, politicians) about the country, people, politics, tourism, sports, etc. The content is customized for each subject and is a platform for training, coaching, and sharing documents on information for information forces to carry out propaganda and information tasks.

Due to the nature of the work of information technology related to many ministries, branches and localities, it is necessary to have a suitable investment and construction roadmap. In the immediate future, priority is given to building a management system and exploiting database information to serve information technology work in border areas.

Fourth, developing digital data to affirm sovereignty in cyberspace . (1) Digital exhibition of Vietnam's Hoang Sa and Truong Sa - historical and legal evidence . The series of live exhibitions at units and localities nationwide and in some overseas locations held in recent times has created an unprecedented strong propaganda campaign on sovereignty over seas and islands, resulting in raising awareness and fostering widespread patriotism among all classes and classes of people in the country and overseas Vietnamese, people understanding international law on the Law of the Sea, understanding and trusting in the policies and measures of our Party and State in the East Sea, being vigilant, detecting and standing side by side with functional forces in detecting and condemning and boycotting false propaganda about sovereignty in the East Sea. In 2023, continue to expand data according to public opinion struggle plans according to scenarios directed by the State Steering Committee on the East Sea - Islands according to developments in the field; (2) Digital exhibition of achievements in protecting and promoting human rights of Vietnam through state archives with the name "For the happiness of each person" from 2019 and through the eyes of foreigners with the name "Happy Vietnam" from 2023; (3) Digital exhibition on 54 Vietnamese ethnic groups and Vietnam's achievements in implementing the Convention against Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Human rights issues, through the hands of the Vietnam News Agency, have been transferred from records to the public, so that our people can understand human rights, be vigilant against plots to exploit human rights issues, strongly refute distorted arguments, and strengthen Vietnam's position in resolving human rights issues at the global level.

Fifth , research and develop a set of criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of information dissemination . Foreign press and press participating in information dissemination in recent times have played an important role as the main force in promoting and bringing official information from Vietnam to the world and from the world to Vietnam. However, to further promote the role of the press in information dissemination work, it is necessary to specifically evaluate and measure the quality of content, news articles, level of access and whether it is right and hits the target.

The set of criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of online press is necessary to objectively and accurately evaluate the effectiveness of online press, and is also the basis for ordering the press to perform online press tasks.

In the context of the 4th industrial revolution is developing strongly, the world is flat and there seems to be no more geographical barriers in cyberspace. The strong and rapid development of digital technology has brought people around the world closer together, information from all over the world is updated continuously, multi-dimensionally in cyberspace, making people overcome geographical distance and easily receive new sources of information and knowledge.

The domestic and international situation has many fluctuations with intertwined advantages and challenges. Strategic competition between major countries continues to develop complicatedly, deeply affecting political, economic, social life and international relations. Cyber ​​security issues, non-traditional security... continue to pose many challenges to global governance. All of the above factors have posed heavy and challenging tasks for the work of information technology in general and the state management of information technology of the Ministry of Information and Communications in particular, how to both fight and propagate to firmly protect the sovereignty of the sea and islands, the sovereignty of national borders; fight and refute the distorted and incorrect arguments of hostile forces... while promoting the media to promote the image, actively contributing to enhancing the prestige and position of the country in the international arena, effectively serving the foreign affairs of the Party and State and people's diplomacy to achieve the highest efficiency.

The information and communication sector must build a comprehensive cyberspace posture to protect the Fatherland from afar, deploy comprehensive solutions on cyberspace to promote the positive aspects and limit the negative aspects of cyberspace, contributing to improving the effectiveness, strengthening the fight, preventing plots, sabotage activities, distorted arguments, and wrong views of hostile and reactionary forces in cyberspace; spreading positive information to orient public opinion, enhancing the prestige and image of Vietnam in the international arena. Continue to build and perfect the legal system in the fields of foreign information, information and communication, and cyberspace management, contributing to protecting the Party's ideological foundation, the achievements of the renovation process, contributing to building and firmly protecting the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland in the new situation./.

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Author :

Dinh Tien Dung - Deputy Director of the Department of External Information, Ministry of Information and Communications

Mai Thi Thu Lan - Specialist of the Department of External Information, Ministry of Information and Communications