Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung

The figure shows that a lot of Vietnamese businesses are abetting illegal and anti-cultural activities.

Vietnamese brands run ads on WeTV, IQIYI, Hunder Assassin

It is easy to find video ads of well known brands such as Omo, Comfort, Clear, Sendo, and Bi do Alpha on cross-border apps such as IQIYI, WeTV, Egg Finder and Hunter Assassin. These are unlicensed apps for videos and video games, or in other words, games operating outside Vietnamese law.

Vietnamese management agencies do not grant licenses to apps that have content or have ways of operation that do not serve community benefits, and do not observe Vietnamese laws.

Many of the apps of this kind promote violence, titillate people, or provide wrong information distorting Vietnamese territorial sovereignty.

The apps outside Vietnamese laws have been trying to penetrate Vietnam. It is estimated that in app markets, each app of this kind accesses several tens of thousands to several millions of users.

There is no evidence that shows that illegal cross-border apps are using price strategies to persuade Vietnamese brands to run ads on apps through automatic advertisement networks. However, they have financial advantages because they operate illegally and don’t have to fulfill tax duties or pay other expenses to ensure the performance of other obligations like legal apps.

Vietnamese businesses spend big money to feed illegal activities

MIC has recently taken actions to ensure that content in cyberspace is healthy. Cross-border platforms, including Facebook and YouTube, have content that distort the Party and the State’s policies and laws, and defame the Party and the State leaders.

Moreover, content on cross-border apps operating outside Vietnamese laws promote foul language, infringe on personal life, call for collective violence, introduce bad behaviors (children pour fish sauce on their mother's head, eat raw fish etc).

This is an encouragement for anti-cultural and inhumane behaviors that is contrary to the traditions of the Vietnamese people.

In such a hodgepodge of illegal, anti-cultural and inhumane activities, there have been more and more video ads by Vietnamese brands, including well known ones such as Unilever, Ford Vietnam, FWD Vietnam and Sen Do.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said businesses running ads on platforms with bad content lend a hand unwittingly to these platforms to harm the country. 

Phuong Nguyen

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