Posting a Video Criticizing Someone as Poor on Social Media: Is It Considered an Insult to Their Dignity?
Is posting a clip criticizing someone's poverty on TikTok considered an insult to their dignity and honor?
Recently, a short video circulated on social media showing a male TikToker using derogatory language to criticize others for being poor. So, if one criticizes another for being poor and posts it on social media, is it considered an insult to that person's honor and dignity?
Currently, the law does not clearly define what constitutes an insult to a person's honor.
Article 20 of the 2013 Constitution states:
Article 20.
1. Everyone has the inviolable right to the integrity of their body, the right to be protected by the law regarding health, honor, and dignity; not to be tortured, subjected to violence, coerced, or faced with any other forms of treatment that infringe on the body, health, or honor and dignity.
2. No one shall be arrested without a decision from the People's Court, a decision, or approval from the People's Procuracy, except in cases of flagrante delicto. The arrest, detention, and custody of persons are governed by law.
3. Everyone has the right to donate organs, body parts, and to donate their bodies as regulated by law. Medical, pharmaceutical, scientific, or any other forms of experimentation on human bodies must have the consent of the subject.
Additionally, Article 34 of the 2015 Civil Code stipulates:
The right to protection of honor, dignity, and reputation
1. The honor, dignity, and reputation of an individual are inviolable and protected by law.
2. An individual has the right to request that the court reject information that adversely affects their honor, dignity, or reputation.
Protection of honor, dignity, and reputation may be carried out after the individual's death at the request of the spouse, adult child, or if not available, the deceased person's parents unless otherwise specified by relevant laws.
3. Adverse information about an individual's honor, dignity, and reputation published in the media must be removed, corrected through the same media channels. If this information is held by an agency, organization, or individual, it must be destroyed.
4. If the person spreading adverse information about someone's honor, dignity, and reputation cannot be identified, the affected individual has the right to request the court declare that information as false.
5. An individual whose honor, dignity, and reputation are adversely affected by false information has the right to request the false information be rejected, the person spreading it to make a public apology and correction, and to claim damages.
According to these regulations, an individual's honor and dignity are inviolable. No one has the right to infringe upon another's honor and dignity.
Acts of insulting someone's honor are understood as using offensive words to speak about a person to lower that person's value, credibility, and honor.
Therefore, criticizing someone for being poor to lower their value and honor, and posting it on social media can be considered an insult to their honor and dignity.
Is posting a clip criticizing someone's poverty on social media considered an insult to their dignity?
How much is the fine for acts of insulting and derogating someone's dignity on social media?
As stipulated in Clause 1, Point a, Article 101 of Decree 15/2020/ND-CP (amended by Clause 37, Article 1 of Decree 14/2022/ND-CP) on violations of regulations on the responsibility to use social network services and electronic information pages set up through social networks, it states:
Violations of regulations on the responsibility to use social network services and electronic information pages set up through social networks
1. A fine of 10,000,000 VND to 20,000,000 VND shall be imposed on acts of exploiting social networks to commit the following acts:
a) Providing, sharing fake information, false information, distorted, defamatory, and insulting the credibility of agencies, organizations, or the honor and dignity of individuals;
b) Providing, sharing content that promotes bad customs, superstitions, depravity, obscenity, unsuitable with the nation's traditions;
c) Providing, sharing detailed descriptions of murder, death, accidents, horror, and terror;
d) Providing, sharing fabricated information causing public alarm, inciting violence, crime, social evils, gambling or aiding gambling;
dd) Providing, sharing journalistic, literary, artistic works, or publications without the consent of the intellectual property owner or without circulation permits or banned from circulation;
e) Advertising, propagandizing, and sharing information about prohibited goods and services;
g) Providing, sharing images of Vietnam maps that do not show or incorrectly show national sovereignty;
h) Providing, sharing links to information on the internet with prohibited content.
2. A fine of 20,000,000 VND to 30,000,000 VND shall be imposed on acts of disclosing state secrets, personal secrets, and other secrets that do not yet constitute a criminal offense.
Hence, using social networks to insult the honor and dignity of individuals shall be subject to administrative penalties ranging from 10,000,000 VND to 20,000,000 VND if the violator is an organization and fines from 5,000,000 VND to 10,000,000 VND if the violator is an individual, as stipulated in Clause 3, Article 4 of Decree 15/2020/ND-CP.
Additionally, offenders are required to remove false or misleading information or other information that violate the law.
Can using social networks to insult someone's dignity lead to imprisonment?
According to Article 155 of the 2015 Criminal Code (amended by Clause 2, Point e, Article 2 of the 2017 Amended Criminal Code) on the crime of humiliating others:
The crime of humiliating others
1. Anyone severely insulting another person’s honor and dignity shall be subject to a warning, a fine of 10,000,000 VND to 30,000,000 VND, or a non-custodial reform for up to 3 years.
2. Anyone committing one of the following acts may be subjected to 3 to 24 months of imprisonment:
a) Committing the crime multiple times;
b) Insulting 2 or more people;
c) Taking advantage of their position of authority;
d) Committing the crime against individuals performing official duties;
dd) Committing the crime against a teacher, caregiver, or health care provider;
e) Using a computer network, telecommunications network, or electronic means to commit the crime;
3. The crime will be punished more severely if it results in severe mental disorders and behavioral disturbances with a body injury rate of 31% to 60% to the victim or prompts the victim to commit suicide, subject to 2 to 5 years of imprisonment.
4. In addition to the above penalties, offenders might also be banned from holding specific official posts, practicing certain occupations, or doing certain jobs for 1 to 5 years.
Thus, using social networks to insult someone's honor and dignity can lead to criminal liability for the crime of humiliating others, with a highest sentence of 5 years of imprisonment depending on the severity of the offense.
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