Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan answers during the Q&A session as part of the NASC's ninth sitting in Hanoi on April 18. (Credit: quochoi.vn)

Tuan said Vietnam is among the top countries in terms of use of social networking sites, with nearly 45 million Facebook users and also one of the top ten YouTube subscribing countries.

Due to limited law awareness, part of the general public have been exposed to and incited by pornographic, violent and misleading content, including false information released by hostile forces, mostly on foreign social media pages, which has been a cause of concern among the public, he admitted.

The ministry has asked Google to remove more than 2,200 video clips that blackened and spoke ill of Party and State leaders on its YouTube channel. As of April 12, the Internet search engine giant took off 1,299 damaging clips and dealt with a reactionary channel that had posted some 517 clips.

Recently, the ministry also urged Google to establish a mechanism to prevent and delete falsified information violating Vietnam’s law on some of its platforms such as blogs and websites.

In the coming months, it will also work with Facebook to remove pages falsely named after Party and State leaders, as well as work with the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and the military-run telecom provider Viettel which are known as suppliers of digital information archive hiring services for foreign individuals and organisations.

Other measures include building a precautionary and warning tool, a management mechanism that enables the use of a filtering system that promptly discovers and removes information found to be in violation.

In relation to the cyber security and safety issue raised by lawmakers following the recent cyber-attacks against several aviation units and agencies, Tuan admitted that such attacks have tended to increase worldwide in quantity, scale and complexity.

He cited a 2016 survey conducted by the ministry and the Vietnam Information Security Association as saying that 41% of agencies and organisations did not check malwares on their networks, 51% of respondents were yet to issue a standard response process in case of incidents, and 73% were yet to adopt information safety measures in line with regulations and domestic and global standards.

The minister attributed the situation to limited awareness of information safety among sectors and businesses’ executives, the shortage of competent experts specialised in the field, technical standard system and investment resources.

He pledged to continue refining the legal corridor in the field, adding that the ministry has directed concerned agencies to coordinate, alert and directly respond to several important and urgent cases while issuing a process to check and ensure cyber information safety, deal with incidents and conduct information security rehearsals.

The ministries’ relevant agencies have offered guidelines, supervision, warning and technical support to ministries, agencies and localities, as well as strengthened cooperation with the ministries of National Defence and Public Security via information sharing and collaboration mechanisms, he said.

Talking further on this issue, Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam underscored the importance of synchronous measures, from legal framework, institutions to technical solutions, and most importantly, users’ awareness, adding that the association of IT enterprises needs to play a role in improving public awareness of this effort.

In her closing remarks at the session, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan asked the NA Secretary General to work with relevant agencies to announce the NA Standing Committee’s conclusion on the question-and-answer session.

The NA’s Ethnic Council, committees and lawmakers were required to strengthen supervision on the delivery of promises made by ministers and heads of sectors, contributing to dealing with arising issues together with the government and meeting the expectations of constituents and people across the country.