Vietnam Requests Google and Meta To Utilize Artificial Intelligence To Block ‘Harmful’ Content

According to state media reports on Friday, Vietnam has instructed cross-border social platforms to employ artificial intelligence (AI) models capable of automatically identifying and eliminating “toxic” content. This is the most recent demand in the country’s strict regulations for social media companies.

Vietnam has repeatedly asked companies such as Meta’s Facebook, Google’s YouTube and TikTok to coordinate with authorities to remove “toxic” content such as offensive, false and anti-state content.

“This is the first time Vietnam has announced such an order,” state-run Vietnam Television (VTV) said of the information ministry’s mid-term review session, which was open to selected newspapers.

The report did not detail when and how cross-border platforms must comply with the new requirement.

In the first half of this year, Facebook removed 2,549 posts following government requests, the ministry said in a statement. YouTube removed 6,101 videos and TikTok removed 415 links, the Ministry of Information said in its release.

The announcement came as Southeast Asian countries drew up administrative and ethical guidelines for artificial intelligence, putting “guardrails” on the burgeoning technology, Reuters reported this month.

In recent years, Vietnam has issued several regulations, including a cyber security law, targeting foreign social media platforms in an effort to combat disinformation in the news and to force foreign technology companies to set up representative offices in Vietnam and store information in the country.

The country conducted a comprehensive inspection of the local operations of the short video platform TikTok last month, and the preliminary results showed “various” TikTok violations, the Ministry of Information has said.

VTV reported that the Ministry of Information said at Friday’s event that US streaming giant Netflix had submitted the documents needed to open a local office in Vietnam.