Lưu Đình Phúc (second from left), deputy head of the Authority of Press, said when enterprises face such a situation they should complain to the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information. VNS/Photo.Gia Lộc

HCM CITY— Social media spreads information and disinformation rapidly, exerting a big influence on the public and businesses, and so the Government needs to have policies in place to manage and regulate it, a senior academic has said.

Nguyễn Văn Vẹn, director of one of the HCM City Open University’s two campuses, speaking at a forum on communication and brand names in the digital age (July 23) in HCM City yesterday, said it should also have a comprehensive legal framework for digital communication.

It should also set up a system to identify communication crimes to detect disinformation and fake news, he said.

According to Nguyễn Hải Triều, co-founder and CEO of YouNet Media, there are 64 million active social media users in the country, up from 55 million last year.

Some 11 million posts are uploaded every day and receive 60 million comments.

There are an equal number of Facebook users in rural areas as in urban areas.

Social media is having a big influence on society with its rapid dissemination of information, while the number of communication crises on social media increased 25 fold in 2017 from just two years earlier, according to Triều. 

Business executives attending the forum said their products and brand names were often faked and published on social media, affecting their companies’ reputation.

Lưu Đình Phúc, deputy head of the Authority of Press, said when enterprises face such a situation they should complain to the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information.

Lê Xuân Sơn, editor-in-chief of Tiền Phong ( Vanguard) newspaper, the event organiser, said it was very important that enterprises pay attention to the quality of their products instead of merely building their image on social media since the latter could collapse rapidly.

Hồ Quang Lợi, standing vice chairman of the Việt Nam Journalists Association, said for enterprises to prevent disinformation, the information they provide needed to be explicit.

"Using traditional media is the way to resolve communication crises on social media," he said.

Triều said "people still trust traditional media and double check information on it".

Lợi said in an intensely competitive environment, where they compete by using information, enterprises and the media should complement each other.

Lâm Minh Chánh, co-founder of Management and Startup Community, said many enterprises used social media to build their brand name.

However, "building brand names is not merely done through advertising or communication," he said.

"In a digital environment, consumers’ adverse assessments spread rapidly and widely, and businesses need to be able to deal with this."

Việt Nam has more than 60 per cent of its 96 million population using the internet. Each person uses the internet for more than seven hours a day, higher than the regional and world averages. VNS