Singer Hoa Minzy

At the press conference on Covid-19 prevention and control held in Ho Chi Minh City on July 29, head of the municipal Department for Information and Communications, Nguyen Duc Tho, said that they had issued the fine on the singer for spreading fake news on a statement of a government leader.

On July 28, Hoa copied a section of text she read on Facebook and reposted it on her personal page.

It said “Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said that if anyone plans to go on holiday while tickets are cheap, please rethink carefully. Next week is an important landmark!!! We have four to six days to increase from 75 to 100-500 cases! And about eight to 12 days to go from 500 to 1,000-5,000 cases!”

"Hoa then removed her post, and admitted she shouldn’t have shared fake and unverified information," Tho said.

On July 26, a 25-year-old woman in the central province of Thua Thien - Hue was also given the same fine for that post. Dtinews

Vietnam’s netizens fight fake news

False health advice, such as eating chicken eggs or marjoram to prevent infection, as well as fabricated information about infected and quarantined people are posted every day to garner hundreds of likes and shares.