Social media giants remove false advertisements, fake news in Vietnam

Facebook blocked and removed more than 2,260 posts that carried false information and propaganda against the Communist Party, the government, several brands, individuals and organizations, the Ministry of Information and Communications said in a report.

The platform also removed three impersonating profiles, blocked eight profiles that regularly posted fake news and removed 30 advertising pages.

Google removed 4,910 violating videos on YouTube during the period and blocked two anti-state YouTube channels from being accessed from Vietnam.

TikTok removed 397 links that posted false information including 139 that often posted anti-state content.

The ministry on Thursday announced its investigation results into TikTok, exposing various violations by the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app.

It said the platform has committed violations including the storage of information that violates Vietnamese law in servers within the country, ineffective content management, the lack of tools to ensure children's privacy and the lack of policies to protect copyrighted content, among others.

The ministry asked TikTok to delete all accounts belonging to users aged under 13 and restrict screen time on users aged under 18.

Vietnam has more than 66 million users on Facebook, 63 million on YouTube and 50 million on TikTok.