On December 15, the General Department of Security under the Ministry of Public Security said it had found two men suspected of spreading currency revaluation rumours.
According to the department, one of the men living in Dong Nai Province and the other in Lam Dong Province. One of them, Nguyen Xuan Long, is the admin of the Vit Bau Facebook page.
Nguyen Xuan Long has been accused of spreading false currency rumours
Long allegedly admitted that the fan page was set up in 2015 by an American-Vietnamese woman in the US and he was invited to become its admin this September. He said they published 10 posts a day and many of the stories were fake.
The Ministry of Public Security is expanding the investigation.
Since late October, rumours started circulating online that the State Bank of Vietnam was going to revalue the Vietnam dong, a story that encouraged people to buy gold or foreign currency. Supposed images of the new Vietnam dong currency were circulated with a claim that the printing process had begun.
The page was also accused of spreading and inciting anti-government posts.
On December 1, the State Bank of Vietnam denied the rumours and said they were deliberately being circulated to cause damage. On December 6, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered the police to find the source of the rumours, saying that it had badly affected the the economy and the public should strongly criticise such behaviour.
