Vietnam to inspect TikTok content to stop harmful videos

Le Quang Tu Do, head of the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications, said that recently a lot of toxic, offensive, false and superstitious content has been appearing on the social media app TikTok in Vietnam.

The inspection, to be conducted by the communications ministry, seeks to ensure that the social media complies with Vietnam’s regulations, both in content and operations.

"TikTok, Facebook and YouTube are all cross-border social media with international standards," Do said. "But when entering Vietnam, they need to comply with Vietnam’s laws, which includes regulations on content management and tax, payments and commercial policy."

TikTok was launched in Vietnam in 2019 after a year of beta testing. It now has nearly 50 million Vietnamese users aged 18 and above. Vietnam ranks sixth out of 10 countries with the biggest number of TikTok users, according to research company DataReportal.

In the first quarter of last year TikTok said it removed some 2.43 million videos uploaded by Vietnamese users for violating its community guidelines related to nudity and sexual acts involving minors, inciting violence and also frightening content, harassment, bullying, suicides, and more.