Authentication Required for Social Media in Vietnam

Instead of using your real name on social media platforms using a pseudonym or false name There are numerous accounts. For years, these anonymous accounts have not only involved social media users, but also governments.

The main reason for this discussion is very simple: Anonymous accounts often cannot be identified if the user is careful enough. Posts made from these accounts can create false agendas against the government. In other words, the problem is not revealing the hidden facts, the real problem is the failure to prevent disinformation. Of course, due to this risk, governments that want to increase their dominance in social networks, Precautions against anonymous accounts it’s starting to take.

The last example of these measures came from Vietnam:

Vietnam bans anonymous social media accounts by law, as part of the Telecommunications Law Amendment, which is scheduled to go into effect by the end of 2023. With the new law change, social media users You will be asked to authenticate.

In addition, accounts that have not been authenticated to date will be required to comply with the new regulation and verify. So every social media user in Vietnam will use accounts linked to their own identity.

The government recognized the necessity of this change as “to prevent internet fraud” has been presented. On the other hand, the country imposed the obligation to close the accounts that were determined to be fake last year by social media platforms within 24 hours.

The experts’ comments are different:

According to the BBC, many experts state that disinformation and growing hate speech on social media is a concern for governments in Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese government is also on the digital field. want to gain more control is expressed.

What are the precautions taken against anonymous accounts in Turkey?

It prevents you from opening an anonymous account in Turkey, sharing or interacting with this account.of course harmful and non-malicious posts) there is no law. On the other hand, there have been some requests for anonymous accounts in the political arena in the past.

In February 2022, MHP Kırıkkale Deputy Halil Öztürk stated that anonymous or fake accounts were “hostile to the Turkish state” in the bill he prepared. Öztürk, those who create fake accounts face up to six months in prison, in case of “knowingly spreading false news” or “mediating” with these accounts. Imprisonment from 2 to 5 years had foreseen.

How are anonymous accounts detected in Turkey?

If the real person behind the anonymous accounts cannot be identified in law enforcement, social media platforms are directly involved. Turkey, in a sense, made it compulsory for social media platforms to appoint a representative to our country for this reason.

All social media platforms with the law numbered 7253*, which entered into force on October 1, 2020, To appoint a representative to Turkey had to. It was stated that an advertising ban would be imposed on social media platforms that could not appoint a representative. Each platform appointed its representative because of the risk of ad ban.

*Law Amending the Law on Arranging Broadcasts on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed Through These Broadcasts

These representatives were the ones who evaluated the government’s requests about accounts and shares on social networks. Applications for any violation are evaluated by the representatives, within 48 hours at the latest offers a positive or negative answer.

According to the Transparency report presented by Twitter, Türkiye From July to December 2021 He requested information 418 times, 16 of which were ‘urgent’. In the same period, legal requests were made 4284 times, and access to 62 accounts and 540 Tweets was blocked. Twitter’s current transparency reports do not include this information.