Two days ago, the Resident Weekly, Tech news vision and some tabloid news sites posted an article about Ahmed Zulficar, who announced that he started his partnership with a famous startups investment firm in Vietnam as a Judge and ended up injecting $1 million today to support the Vietnamese state.
According to a report by Vietnam Star, Vietnam’s media and internet watchdog and the startups investment firm, which has been mentioned in the news quickly pressured the news sites to delete the article from its website.
The spoke-person of the startups investment firm told Vietnam Star:
“It has come to our attention that certain online news websites have published articles this week citing that an Egyptian investor named Ahmed Zulficar has been or is currently a partner of our firm.
Please take note that this information is false and that our firm is not and has not been associated with the above-mentioned person in any way.
False information is harmful to our brand and the startups that we back across the world. We are working on identifying the source of this misinformation in order to take necessary legal action. We kindly request your cooperation not to publish or circulate any information concerning the above.”
The demand was part of a widespread campaign against what authorities and the businesses in Vietnam called “fake news”.
The Vietnam Star found many cases accused of spreading “untrue information” on social media and via messenger apps, with at least three of them receiving significant fines.
Police statements offered few details but clearly indicated those involved were merely sharing opinions or rumors, rather than deliberately spreading misinformation.
Source: Vietnam Star