Boycotted TikToker fined $302 for mocking the poor

Nguyen Duc Tho, office head of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communications, on Tuesday said 26-year-old Pham Duc Tuan, owner of the TikTok account No O No, was fined for sharing content that violated “civil customs”. The banning of his account, with over 600,000 followers, was confirmed by TikTok on Monday.

Tuan has admitted to using words that were “careless” and “morally inappropriate”, affecting the community.

The No O No account is known for restaurant and retail reviews. But the account recently posted videos of Tuan degrading the poor while on charity trips to feed the elderly, sparking widespread outrage.

In one video, he asks an elderly woman on the street what her favorite food is. Then he surprises her with a free serving of it in his hands.

Instead of gifting it to the woman, Tuan said some rude and offensive sentences to her like: “Hello poor old miserable lady, alone in the middle of the winter”, “You’re poor, why didn’t you take the food?”, “You can’t even buy a cheap bowl of pho” and “Stop being poor, no one can help you forever.”

Vietnamese regulations dictate that those who post and share content that is not in accordance with civil customs may receive a fine from VND5-10 million ($202-404).