Vietnam to probe TikTok over ‘toxic’ content
The app is already under increasing pressure from Western governments over fears that user data could be used or misused by Chinese officials.
Vietnam will investigate TikTok for “toxic content” hosted by the hugely popular video-sharing app founded by Chinese entrepreneurs.
The communist state strictly restricts freedom of speech and often cracks down on government critics who find an audience on social media apps.
TikTok has an estimated 50 million users in Vietnam, according to government-cited data from research firm DataReporter.
It removed 1.7 million videos in the fourth quarter of last year at the request of the Vietnamese government, saying they violated government policy, according to company data.
The app is already under increasing pressure from Western governments over fears that user data could be used or misused by Chinese officials.
It was fined in the UK this week and banned from official devices in Australia.
Le Quang Tu Do, head of Vietnam’s radio, TV and electronic information, said the information department would organize an “inter-ministerial” inspection of the company in May.
“TikTok has no effective control measures for content that violates politics, against party and state, fake news, toxic content,” Do told reporters. The lack of control “facilitated the spread of fake news, causing economic losses and social instability,” he said. Moderating content on the popular Chinese application that features bite-sized videos was “much more difficult” than on other platforms, Do added.
“We will need stricter measures to combat that content, removal alone is not enough,” Do said, adding that the ministry “asked cross-border platforms to strictly follow Vietnamese laws.”
TikTok was told by the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information in February that a government delegation would visit its offices in Vietnam in the second quarter, it told Channel News Asia. The Chinese owners, Bytedance, did not immediately respond to AFP news agency’s request for comment.
Britain’s data regulator said on Tuesday it had fined TikTok £12.7 million ($15.9 million) for allowing up to 1.4 million children under the age of 13 to use the platform in violation of its own rules.
Australia banned the app from government devices after similar steps from France, the Netherlands and the European Commission.