At the regular press briefing on December 7, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, Deputy Director of the Authority of Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications, shared details about TikTok addressing its infractions following the examination conducted by Vietnamese authorities.
Earlier, an inter-agency inspection team conducted a thorough examination of TikTok's activities in Vietnam. The inspection results, disclosed in October, uncovered numerous violations, such as the improper information storage conflicting with Vietnamese laws. Additionally, the content moderation process was deemed inefficient, leading to the dissemination of a considerable amount of content that breached Vietnamese laws.
TikTok also lacks measures and tools to ensure the security of children's private information. There are no warning messages regarding potential risks when children provide or modify their private information. Additionally, TikTok has not implemented a policy to safeguard the copyright of user-generated content.
The inspection conclusion mandates TikTok to undertake nine measures for rectification, including the complete removal of all content violating Vietnamese laws, refraining from utilizing algorithms to promote or suggest unlawful content to users, a total ban on politically-oriented advertisements featuring anti-Party or anti-Vietnamese State content, and active collaboration in providing information for verification and investigation of law-violating activities on the TikTok platform according to regulations.
The inspection team requests TikTok to implement measures for child protection, such as verifying account information to identify instances where children provide inaccurate age information and removing accounts of users under the age of 13. Additionally, TikTok should impose restrictions on access and usage for individuals under 18, prohibiting children from earning money through the platform. Ensuring the safeguarding of children's personal information, issuing age warnings for TikTok videos, and closely monitoring content for appropriateness and potential harm are also essential requirements.
Furthermore, the inspection team recommends exploring the creation of a specialized application for children in Vietnam. Additionally, TikTok is urged to improve its content moderation system, particularly concerning livestreaming.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, TikTok's response document outlines the platform's commitment to implementing four measures from October 26. These include strengthening child protection measures, addressing copyright concerns, and coordinating policy communication efforts with the Ministry of Information and Communications. TikTok is currently engaged in discussions with the Ministry on three measures, focusing on the effective implementation of measures to block content violating laws, enhancing the efficiency of information scanning tools, and improving content moderation systems, particularly for live streaming.
Nevertheless, TikTok has yet to accept two points. Namely, it has not agreed to authorize legal entities in Vietnam to manage and address content violations as per the requests of Vietnamese State regulatory agencies. Huyen explained, "TikTok cites the reason that Vietnamese law has not yet established regulations for this. Hence, there is no basis for its implementation."
The second point that TikTok has yet to agree on involves reaching an agreement with press agencies on the implementation of copyright for press content uploaded to the TikTok platform. "For the aspects that TikTok has not approved, we will persist in our efforts and negotiate for TikTok to strictly comply with the requirements outlined by the inspection team," said Huyen.
