A woman in the central province of Thừa Thiên – Huế has been fined VNĐ7.5 million (US$326) for spreading fake news about COVID-19 on Facebook.
On Monday, Vương Thị Thanh Huyền, 25, copied a section of text she read on Facebook and reposted it on her personal page.
It said “Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam said that if anyone plans to go on holiday while tickets are cheap, please rethink carefully. Next week is an important landmark!!! We have four to six days to increase from 75 to 100-500 cases! And about eight to 12 days to go from 500 to 1,000-5,000 cases!”
Huyền removed her post on Tuesday, telling police that she knew the information was inaccurate and misleading to the public.
She said she did not have any reason for posting it.
Nguyễn Xuân Sơn, director of the provincial Department of Information and Communications, said Huyền’s behaviour took advantage of online channels to impersonate individuals and spread fake news.
She was subjected to an administrative fine.
This article was originally published in Vietnamnews