The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications is taking a hard line on unlicensed websites and those with inappropriate content, with the list of penalized sites continuing to lengthen.
The ministry has ordered that information and communications departments countrywide intensify their reviews and inspections of online content-providing platforms to identify rule violators and impose sanctions on them in time.
The order is viewed as a ‘declaration of war’ with what the ministry deems ‘ulcer’ of the Internet, according to newswire Vietnam News Agency.
A couple of sites have been shut down since haivl.com – the Vietnamese equivalent of 9GAG – was closed on October 24, a case that grabbed as much media attention as when it was purchased by a local online ad agency for US$1.5 million just a fortnight earlier.
APPVL Vietnam, the company behind haivl.com, was fined VND205 million ($9,649) for allowing vulgar and pornographic photos, as well as offensive pictures of Vietnamese greats, to appear on their website.
Also on October 24, 2sao.vn – a gossip website run by newswire VietNamNet – had its license withdrawn for three months and was fined VND55 million ($2,589) after it published an article featuring contents that insulted great minds.
On October 29, the Ministry of Information and Communications revoked the license of megafun.vn, a news-compiling website operated by VASC, the software unit of state-run telecom giant VNPT, for one month and slapped a VND60 million ($2,824) fine on its operator, Vietnam News Agency reported.
Megafun carried an article in which a mother told readers why she would never allow her son to marry a girl from the northern province of Hai Phong, which the ministry said “damaged the nation’s great unity.”
The information and communications department of the south-central province of Khanh Hoa has just fined a local resident VND20 million ($941) for running two websites with inappropriate content, according to the agency.
Le Van Van, residing in the province’s Nha Trang City, is the owner of the manga24h.com and anime24h.vn sites, which offer scanned Japanese comic books (manga) and animated movies (anime) online, according to the newswire.
Many of the manga and anime on the platforms have sexual and pornographic contents, according to the department.
These tough actions have indeed sent a warning message to other unlicensed websites, and some have applied changes to avoid being the next violator.
The administrators of VnSharing.vn, also a manga and anime platform, voluntarily closed the website shortly after the Khanh Hoa communication watchdog announced its penalty on Van on Monday, according to Phap Luat & Doi Song (Law & Life) newspaper.
VnSharing was not eligible to register to operate as a social media site, and thus had to be closed in order not to violate the law, according to an announcement posted on the website.
Blogtruyen.vn, yet another site that offers free comic books, also began ‘purifying’ its content on Wednesday, as the site is known for sharing a number of manga with adult content.
“It is requested that members not upload books with sexual or violent content, and not discuss adult, anti-politics and anti-religion content in the forum,” blogtruyen administrators said in a notice on its website.
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