HÀ NỘI — Meta has brought its “One Step Ahead” online safety programme to Việt Nam through a temporary Safety Café at the World Culture Festival in Hà Nội from October 2-4, allowing visitors to check and strengthen the security and privacy settings of their accounts.

The initiative marks the first time the Asia-Pacific programme has been presented as an in-person experience in Việt Nam. Meta said the programme had reached more than 303 million people across 18 countries in the region since its launch in May 2026.

At the Safety Café, visitors can use their own devices to run Meta’s Security Checkup, enable two-factor authentication and review privacy settings with support from staff.

Security Checkup reviews an account and recommends actions such as updating a weak password, enabling two-factor authentication and turning on login alerts.

Two-factor authentication adds an additional verification step when logging in, while passkeys allow users to sign in using a device’s fingerprint, face recognition or PIN instead of a password. Meta’s Privacy Checkup also guides users through settings controlling who can see their information and posts.

The programme is part of Meta’s wider efforts to combat online scams. The company said it had removed 65 million scam advertisements from Facebook and Instagram since the beginning of 2026, with 94 per cent removed before they were reported by users.

Meta said user education was being combined with measures to detect and remove scam-related content on its platforms.

The initiative comes as Meta continues to expand cooperation in Việt Nam. The company and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recently signed a memorandum of understanding covering capacity-building programmes for officials, small- and medium-sized tourism operators and Vietnamese content creators, with a focus on digital skills and promoting the country’s cultural assets to international audiences. — BIZHUB