Unverified review websites discredit companies with impunity

The alliance, which promotes Vietnamese digital content, has urged authorities to penalize website creators who make "company review" platforms that give everyone the right to comment about and score and rank companies.

Many of them contain false and unverified information that offend individuals and businesses, the alliance said.

"Many businesses have complained that they struggle to recruit new people or have internal disputes because of these untrue comments."

It is an illegal activity since these websites use information about individuals and organizations without their permission, it said.

Even the websites themselves admit that they cannot guarantee that the comments are legitimate, it pointed out.

One of the websites says in its disclaimer: "Simply put, it is up to you to believe in them or not. We cannot verify the truthfulness of all posts by users."

The DCCA said these websites have been operating for years.

The Ministry of Information and Communications last year blocked access to some of these websites but since then new ones have been launched with new domains.

Le Quang Tu Do, head of the communications ministry’s Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, told VnExpress Tuesday that he was looking into dealing with these websites.