Message to Vietnamese Facebook users: Don’t post incriminating stuff. The cops will bust you

BANGKOK — When shopkeepers caught the little thief, they didn’t call the cops. They tied her to a railing. Then they slung a sign reading “I’M A THIEF” over the 12-year-old schoolgirl’s neck and left her there to stew in the humiliation.

Not so long ago, this minor act of vigilante justice in Vietnam’s highlands would’ve been village gossip and nothing more.

Instead, thanks to Facebook, a photo of the girl went viral — and much of Vietnam was confronted with the image of a pitiful kid bound to a pole as if crucified. Authorities were compelled to intervene. In April, according to the Thanh Nien newspaper, four clerks involved in the spectacle were arrested.

In the last 12 months, tales of Facebook users uploading self-incriminating photos have filled Vietnam’s press.

Binding a 12-year-old to a rail?

That’s nothing. In August, a jilted lover confessed to a murder in a status update.

Facebook is blocked in Vietnam, an authoritarian state with broad powers to strangle free speech. And yet an estimated 30 percent of Vietnamese citizens use it. In Facebook-speak, Vietnam and the social media behemoth have a relationship — but "it’s complicated."

The communist government’s Facebook blocks are so weak that almost anyone (even clerks in a rural market) can bypass them with a few tricks. Unlike in China, authorities in Vietnam give Facebook users a long leash.

For police, this lax take on social media has its advantages. Social media is a new phenomenon in Vietnam. So new, in fact, that some Vietnamese Facebook junkies don’t seem to comprehend that anyone — including the cops — can see everything they’ve posted online.

Some of these users have photos that double as criminal evidence. Others have simply spread panic-inducing rumors, which is a serious crime in Vietnam.

In recent years, authorities in Vietnam have been treated to a buffet of evidence uploaded by offenders. The nation’s justice system is already heavily biased in favor of state prosecutors. In the Facebook era, some suspects are making their jobs even easier. 

Here are a few of Vietnam’s social media scandals from the last 12 months:

Crime: An alleged bear killing

A shirtless guy popped up on Facebook giving the thumbs-up sign over the corpse of a dead bear. He posted offers in Vietnamese to sell its teeth. None of this is legal without a permit. Authorities are investigating.

Penalty: Potentially a $23,000 fine if he’s found guilty of trading illegal wildlife.

Crime: Revenge porn

A married 39-year-old man living near Ho Chi Minh City had a fling with a coworker. She broke it off. So he posted her nude photos on Facebook.

Penalty: One year in prison.

Crime: Mocking a Ho Chi Minh speech

The communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh helped defeat two Western empires, France and the US. His name is sacrosanct in Vietnam. A 14-year-old schoolgirl altered one of his speeches, which called for uprising against colonial occupiers, and rewrote it as a tirade against teachers. Hoping to amuse her friends, she posted it on Facebook.

Penalty: Suspension from school and national condemnation.

Crime: Smoking opium in prison

A 30-year-old man illegally acquired a mobile phone and posted photos of his opium-smoking session to Facebook. Worse yet, he’s an inmate. The man insisted he was only trying to show his wife how life unfolds behind bars.

Penalty: Not yet determined.

Crime: Concocting a road rage murder story

On Facebook, a 21-year-old man wrote that he’d just witnessed a sedan driver smash into a truck, step out of the car and shoot two of the truck’s occupants dead. He made the whole thing up. His motive, according to the Tuoi Tre newspaper, was to “lure likes and people’s attention.”

Penalty: $1,185 in fines.

Crime: Spreading Ebola rumors

Ebola, the virus that makes humans hemorrhage blood until — in at least about half of cases — they die, has not officially leapt into Vietnam. That didn’t stop a couple from spreading rumors on Facebook that an Ebola-infected man was being treated in Hanoi. According to Thanh Nien, they “made up the information in order to warn people of the danger of Ebola virus.”

Penalty: A $944 fine.

Crime: Homicide

A 29-year-old man got dumped by his younger girlfriend. He stalked and threatened her for years until 2013, when he stabbed her to death in a restaurant. According to Thanh Nien, the man then boasted on Facebook that he’d just punished her. He then wrote, “Tomorrow, I’ll go to jail.” That’s exactly what happened, but then it got worse.

Penalty: Execution.