YouTube once again under boycott

Many big brands have stopped running advertisements on YouTube

The Ministry of Information and Communications’ (MIC) Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) has just received explanations from Samsung Vina, FPT Shop, Yamaha, and the other 12 companies whose advertisements had been inserted into anti-government videos on the platform.

Accordingly, the companies confirmed to have stopped all advertising activities on the platform as soon as receiving notices from the authority.

Previously, a representative of Singapore-based e-commerce platform Shopee – one of the companies – told VIR that Shopee had been working with Google to remove its advertisements from harmful videos on YouTube. In addition, the company also sent notices to its advertising agencies to ensure all of its advertising activities were in line with local regulations.

At the same time, the ABEI also announced a list of 40 more brands whose advertisements appeared on harmful videos on YouTube. The authority sent documents requiring them to quickly remove the ads from the videos and asked them to file reports explaining the situation before June 27.

The ABEI also affirmed to partner with other related authorities and security forces to handle the violations.

Regarding solutions, Le Quang Tu Do, deputy director of the ABEI, said that the authority will require YouTube to force its Vietnamese channels to register with government agencies to be examined before they can earn money from the platform. Violating channels will no longer be allowed to earn money from YouTube. The MIC will also co-operate with the State Bank of Vietnam and other authorities to supervise the transactions with YouTube and Google.

In addition, the authority will require YouTube to remove violating videos from the pane of suggested videos and prevent users from reuploading violating videos. The platform will also need to firmly co-operate with the MIC to remove harmful videos and channels.

More importantly, the MIC will also require Google to open a representative ­office in Vietnam and take its obligations in tax and content management more seriously.