In the middle of the Corona virus storm, the Vietnamese government has tried to prevent Facebook from posting hot information about this dangerous disease
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam is inspecting a hospital preparing to deal with corona virus from China. On the other hand, amid concerns about the risk of spreading the new strain of corona virus on social networks, many Vietnamese Facebookers were interrogated by the police which requests them to remove the warning about corona virus from their Facebook accounts.
The goal of the government is to stop the false information, fake news confusing public opinion. But when the mainstream communication system loses public confidence, is is effective to control epidemic by using security forces to silence Facebookers?
At the Ministry of Health’s emergency meeting on the response to an acute coronary pneumonia virus on the afternoon of January 26 (the second day of the Lunar New Year), Deputy PM Dam requested the handling of people who disseminate fake news on corona virus.
VOV electronic newspaper quoted Mr. Dam asking “The Ministry of Public Security must monitor and watch out if any person who spread false information about the epidemic situation. This is an act of bewilderment and danger, and has to be treated strictly.”
Many people have been summoned by the local police for interrogation on their sharing on social media
Earlier, some Facebookers in Khanh Hoa province were summoned to police stations for interrogation after they posted on their Facebook pages the information about corona virus infection in this province.
State media reported that the provincial police had summoned several Facebookers to police stations to questioning on their recent posts, including “Chinese tourists and Nha Trang local people were infected with corona virus.”
“During interrogation, the Facebookers said that they only heard some people speculate about the person infected with corona virus and they posted the information which has not been verified by the authorities,” Khanh Hoa newspapers said.
After being questioned, these facebook users had to delete the above post.
Khanh Hoa is one of Vietnam’s tourist destinations that attracts a large number of tourists from China. So local people are very worried about the risk of coronavirus infection from these tourists.
Earlier, some local Facebookers reported that on January 9, a 10-year-old child in this province, named Le Nguyen Thi Thanh Hien, died of a corona virus strain at Khanh Hoa Tropical Hospital. Facebookers also uploaded death certificates issued by the commune authorities where their families reside.
However, authorities in Khanh Hoa, including the provincial Department of Health, declare that the province has not had any cases of corona virus infection. And the death is due to another strain of corona virus, not a recent outbreak in China.
Similar to Khanh Hoa, Da Nang is also the locality with a lot of Chinese tourists coming to visit. On the afternoon of January 27, Ms. Ngo Thi Kim Yen, director of Da Nang City Department of Health, told the Vietnamese press that by the afternoon of the same day, in the area, there were nearly 12,000 Chinese people traveling and working.
Currently Da Nang has recorded 41 cases with fever manifestations; including 3 people discovered at the border, 38 people and tourists went to the hospital by themselves. Because there are so many Chinese visitors, rumors related to this disease in Da Nang appear on Facebook quite a lot.
Controversy erupted recently in Danang regarding a hotel owner in the city who posted signs to stop serving guests from China.
Vietnam and China are the countries ranked in the bottom of the list on democracy, human rights, and freedom, so they have the same behaviors when a pandemic outbreak causes a deadly mass.
The behavior of the Vietnamese authorities with information about disease outbreaks on social networks is actually not strange. In China, according to the New York Times, amid the coronavirus disease spread, Wuhan officials were vocal about the disease being controlled and treatable.
The Chinese police also interrogated eight people who posted on social media about the virus for allegedly spreading rumors online. Two days before the official announcement of the severity of the outbreak, Wuhan also held a party with the attendance of more than 40,000 families- just to register …. a world record.
Wang Guang Phat, head of the Department of Respiratory and Emergency Resuscitation, Peking University Hospital I, then also backed by a statement on Chinese Central Television on January 10 that the condition of the patients in Wuhan and the widespread disease situation are under control.
When a group of Hong Kong journalists arrived at Wuhan Hospital, the police held them for several hours; Check phones and cameras. The group of journalists was then forced to delete the video, according to the New York Times.
The “maddening” information caused people to gradually lose faith in mainstream media when the epidemic was officially confirmed with a “serious” situation. Remember, in 2003, when the SARS outbreak broke out, the World Health Organization (WHO) once strongly criticized China for trying to hide the severity of the pandemic.
At that time, in China, the fact that local authorities sought to cover up or beautify the figures, did not dare to report the real numbers; followed by the delay of preventive measures that caused the epidemic to spread. With the current outbreak of pneumonia, that lesson seems to be repeated.
During the SARS epidemic, the fact that local authorities sought to conceal or beautify the figures followed by the delay of preventive measures. By this way, the epidemic became more serious. With the current outbreak of pneumonia, these moves seem to be repeated.
On January 3, Wuhan Police fined eight people for “spreading false and baseless information on the Internet.” The police also asked citizens in Wuhan not to spread false information. But by then, at least 27 cases had been diagnosed with the infection, according to the Poynter Press Institute website.
These people allegedly posted on Weibo and on other messaging apps that SARS has returned. “Autoritarian regimes are not good for health,” Andrew Stroehlein, European Regional Communications Manager for Human Rights Watch, wrote on twitter.
Facing the unforeseen danger of dangerous infectious diseases such as Corona virus, if the authorities in Hanoi continue to rule the people by stifling freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of expression, the disease will have a fertile land for proliferation, bringing disaster and mass death to the people of Vietnam, even the ruling Communist Party will be cursed and perished by the viruses.
Trung Nam from Da Nang – Thoibao.de (Translated)
