
Vietnam's Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) is ramping up efforts to protect the country's cyberspace from harmful content, considering application bans for non-compliant social media platforms like YouTube. Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Thanh Lam, highlighted alarming statistics suggesting Vietnam leads globally in using cyberspace for malicious activities, contributing USD55 of every USD100 generated by illegal activities on YouTube. Violations such as uploading illicit content on fake channels and unauthorized live-streaming of football matches have been identified. In response, ABEI has urged users to adhere to legal regulations, with non-compliance resulting in heavy fines and reduced activity. This comes as Vietnam accounted for 8,462 of the 186,195 applications removed by Apple in 2022, mostly due to design standard violations and fraud.