 Ruici Tio, Meta’s Policy Program Manager on Safety and Integrity in the Asia Pacific Region (Photo credit: Meta) |
Bao Tram: Thank you, Mr. Ruici Tio, for granting VOV this interview.
Ruici Tio: Greetings to the VOV listeners! I’m honored to be here to talk about our newest initiative with the AIS (the Authority of Information Security).
Bao Tram: Tell us more about the “Decoding Scams” campaign in Vietnam and Meta’s role in the campaign.
Ruici Tio: In Vietnam last year we launched the first phase of our educational campaign on scams called “Decoding Scams” and this was a local campaign for Vietnam to raise awareness among social media users about the different types of prevalent scam types that are happening. We partnered with local creators to deliver the content to millions of people and to help them get access to our online safety portal as well as our digital literacy platform “We Think Digital”. We reached over half the online population of Vietnam with this campaign. And this year we're honored to cooperate with the Authority of Information Security under the Ministry of Information and Communications for the second phase of this campaign, which again we're really hoping to improve the skills of users to identify and to protect themselves from online scams, and we've got a two-phase campaign which is tackling common scam types again with broad educational messaging as well as a creator-led campaign that's going to really focus on local scam types.
Bao Tram: What outcomes does Meta expect from this year’s "Decoding Scams" campaign?
Ruici Tio: As I said, Meta is fully committed to preventing fraudulent practices that impact the user experience and raising public awareness about these practices. The "Decoding Scams" campaign aims to improve skills in identifying and dealing with and preventing online scams for users in Vietnam and it’s through a series of short form content which includes infographics as well as videos and learning materials as well as social campaigns like the creator content that I mentioned that we’re really hoping to disseminate and make sure that as many users as possible in Vietnam are able to access these resources. We're very proud that we're able to do this in partnership with AIS. We really hope that this proactive work can increase awareness among users in Vietnam about the importance of being alert and vigilant about online scams.
Bao Tram: What forms of online fraud will the "Decoding Scams" campaign focus on?
Ruici Tio: The “Decoding Scams” campaign in 2024 focuses on 6 of the 24 forms of online fraud. That's right, our campaign is really focused on the six most common scam types that we’ve identified with AIS as hot trends in Vietnam. These are: Investment scams, Job scams, Finance scams, Loan scams, Lottery scams, and Impersonation scams.
These are things that we see all over the world but also in Vietnam and to stay safe we want to make sure that users are aware of the common suspicious telltale signs of these scams. We want to make sure that users will avoid giving away personal information, that they are always protecting their own privacy and their data, and that they're able to verify trusted sources of information. It's only by staying vigilant and informed that users can protect themselves and also prevent others from falling victim to these common scam types.
Bao Tram: What has Meta done to address social networks’ security concerns in Vietnam?
Ruici Tio: The safety and security of people on our platforms is our top priority. We have a zero-tolerance policy to scams on our services and take immediate action to remove illegal activities as quickly as possible, and strongly encourage users to report any suspicious activities.
Our platforms cease to exist without our users. Scams degrade the experience for both users and advertisers on our platforms and we are committed to preventing them. We have invested more than 20 billion USD in teams and technology to protect the safety and security of our platform since 2016. We have about 40,000 people working on safety and security, and have entire teams dedicated to constantly improving and adapting our systems to proactively identify and block and prevent scams. Meta takes scams on its platforms very seriously and is committed to working with government, law enforcement, and industry stakeholders to combat this multi-sector-spanning issue.
Bao Tram: Thank you, Mr. Ruici Tio, for spending this time with VOV.
Ruici Tio: Thank you very much for this opportunity, and please do stay tuned for our video series and our social access around the scam educational campaign. We're really looking forward to continued collaboration in Vietnam to tackle this very important issue.