Toxic content is rampant on Facebook in Vietnam

Full of political distortions, erotic content, "dirty" advertising

If recently, society has been viewing TikTok as a problem because it is full of toxic content, spreading fake news, copyright infringement, eroticism or "sensitive" information about politics... then the content on Facebook is not far behind, especially in the Watch (watch videos ) and Reels (short videos) features of this platform.

With the Watch feature, there are many pages and accounts on this page that are news channels about hot political news that are updated every day. These pages continuously post videos with comments that insult, distort, fabricate, defame, and provide false information about leaders of the Party, State, the Police force, or the Army...

Many videos distorting Party and State leaders appear on Facebook. Screenshot

In addition, also in this feature in recent years, a series of account pages have appeared introducing movies, from Vietnamese feature films, movies shown in theaters, to long films purchased copyrights by television stations... The common feature is that these pages will cut the images of the movie into short clips from 10 to 15 minutes, some pages even leave them for 40 - 60 minutes, then proceed to introduce the movie, blatantly violating the copyright of the units that own these products in Vietnam. Notably, on Watch, videos have appeared promoting obscene cultural products, when many account pages introduce adult movies from Japan, China or the US...

Video promoting obscene publications and aphrodisiacs. Screenshot

In the Reels feature, the short clip feature that Facebook launched to compete with TikTok recently, besides the copyright infringement as above, it is also full of toxic content. These are images of girls dancing without underwear, showing off their butts, showing off their breasts... In particular, there are many erotic videos, showing off their entire bodies, accompanied by advertising links for show-off apps, gambling games, or aphrodisiacs; or short videos with undressing scenes, or sex from adult films... accompanied by advertising for sensitive services, or drugs of unknown origin.

Gambling game advertisement on Reels feature. Screenshot

In addition, the Reels feature also appears with many public advertisements for gambling games, many reward games even advertise images combined with MoMo wallet to help users withdraw money to their accounts...

Difficult to handle thoroughly

Mr. Khoi Nguyen, who is providing online services on social networking platforms in Ho Chi Minh City, said that it is very difficult to remove politically “sensitive” content on Facebook. Because the platform does not identify it as content that violates the law, when users report violations, the platform will ask them to report to the local authorities. To handle this case, the authorities must take strong measures and work directly with Facebook to hope to remove it.

Authorities need to take strong action against politically distorted content on Facebook. Screenshot

As for nonsense, erotic, and toxic content... Mr. Nguyen Hoang Minh, a person who is providing services on Facebook in Ho Chi Minh City, analyzed that with the Reels feature, the content on it can be said to be no different from TikTok, and many accounts have even transferred videos from TikTok to this platform, so the appearance of many toxic content such as eroticism, copyright infringement, "dirty" advertising... is inevitable.

With the Watch feature, although Facebook has a very good copyright or explicit content filter, the creators of these videos have "evaded" it by blurring the images or covering "sensitive" scenes, making it very difficult to detect. In addition, the videos also have all the music cut out, leaving only the voice of the introducer, so it is also very difficult for Facebook to copyright these videos.

“In general, it is very difficult to thoroughly handle these violating contents, due to the huge amount of content, requiring the platform to have stronger and more drastic filters,” Mr. Minh shared.

Speaking at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Information and Communications on April 6, Mr. Le Quang Tu Do, Director of the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information (Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information, Ministry of Information and Communications) also said that with Facebook Reels, the common violations pointed out by the authorities are the appearance of fake news and distorted information related to political content on the platform. On Facebook Reels, there are also many vulgar and offensive images; many advertisements for gambling games, prostitution applications, and drugs of unknown origin have also been recorded.

According to Mr. Le Quang Tu Do, the Ministry of Information and Communications has been coordinating with relevant ministries and branches, organizing meetings many times, and issuing documents resolutely requesting TikTok and other cross-border platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to proactively prevent and remove violating information.

In addition, the Ministry also develops tools and techniques to scan, detect and handle information violations.

Source