The operation of TikTok in Việt Nam will be inspected by an interdisciplinary inspection team involving staff from at least six ministries. VNS Photo Nhật Hồng

HÀ NỘI — An interdisciplinary inspection team involving staff from at least six ministries will conduct a comprehensive inspection of the operations of TikTok, a popular video-sharing app in Việt Nam, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The inspection will focus on the observance of regulations on the provision of social networking services for domestic users, the information censorship process, user information verification, prevention and removal of information that violates Vietnamese law.

It also includes handling user complaints, distribution algorithms, recommending content to users, and collection, management, storage and use of users’ data.

They will also inspect TikTok’s compliance with laws on child protection, their information safety and network security performance as well as prevention and combat of social evils in cyberspace.

Their compliance with regulations related to the provision of e-commerce services and tax obligations will also be examined.

In addition, the inspection work will also focus on their management of celebrities and so-called TikTok Idols.

The team will also assess the impact of TikTok on youth; evaluate the impact and influence of the social network TikTok on the trend and role of mainstream media.

The ministries and agencies engaged in the inspection are Ministry of Information and Communcation, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Hồ Chí Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee and HCM City Department of Information and Communications.

Earlier, Lê Quang Tự Do, head of the ministry’s Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information pointed out six violations of TikTok in Việt Nam.

They included lack of effective measures to violating content related to politics, fake news, harmful and even dangerous content for children; its use of automatic content distribution algorithms to create trends to spread sensational, clickbait content; no effective control measures to prevent scammed business activities, pirated content.

With a comprehensive inspection, the Ministry of Information and Communications will deploy legal, economic, technical, diplomatic and communication measures to request cross-border platforms including TikTok to comply with Vietnamese law. — VNS