When public violence becomes the "eye of the storm" on social networks
In just the first few months of 2026, a series of public assaults caused public outrage.
The case of a group of people driving a Lexus assaulting two girls on Hoang Cau street (Hanoi) was prosecuted after the clip spread on social networks.
Or recently, the case of a girl wearing a sunscreen shirt beating an elderly driver after a traffic accident on Nguyen Xuan Linh street (Hanoi), the online community is outraged and searching for her identity.
The common point of the incidents is that the clips spread very quickly on TikTok, Facebook or Threads, leading to a wave of fierce criticism and the almost immediate intervention of functional agencies.
If in the past many public scuffles could end with mediation or administrative penalties, now just one clip appearing on social networks, the perpetrator of violence almost immediately becomes an "online culprit".
There are many cases of being tracked down, being boycotted online, losing jobs or facing prolonged public pressure even before there is a final conclusion from functional agencies.
Notably, along with the authorities strongly handling cases of assault in public places, public opinion is also showing a clear change in the way of looking at the culture of behavior.
Behaviors that were once considered "temporary anger", "personal conflicts" are now difficult to ignore, especially when violent images appear publicly on social networks.
According to social media expert Nguyen Ngoc Long, social networks are creating a very strong deterrent mechanism for public behavior.
Social networks are now like a giant magnifying glass, exposing every corner of life and making the price to pay for a moment of impulsiveness in public places more expensive than ever.
Social networks do not have magic to change a person's morality or cultural background immediately, but they create a very real fear: fear of being ridiculed, fear of losing face and fear of losing even a bowl of rice.
People are starting to know how to restrain themselves, become less aggressive when going out not because they suddenly become kind or civilized, but simply because they are afraid that the phone cameras of passersby can turn them into cybercriminals overnight," Mr. Long assessed.
According to experts, this is a type of "culture of behavior based on fear".
From a positive perspective, "public pressure" creates a very strong deterrent effect, forcing many people to be more wary before acting violently in public places.
The sentence is even more frightening than the law
According to social media expert Nguyen Ngoc Long, the most worrying thing now is not that social networks condemn the bad, but that online public opinion is increasingly operating like an "online court" with great power but lack of control.
Public opinion on social media is a new punitive weapon of the digital age, operated by the power of the crowd. Even, from a certain perspective, this so-called'murder sentence' is even more frightening and cruel than the punishment of the law," the expert said.
Unlike legal sanctions that are inherently limited and have clear frames of handling, this "murder sentence" can haunt a person for a very long time.
Therefore, according to Mr. Long, all attacks and judgments of public opinion also need to be based on caution, specific and careful research to avoid being hasty, which may cause wrongful convictions for others.
The biggest danger of these'online court sessions' is the haste of the crowd. On social networks, people like to play the role of judges but are lazy to find the truth. They judge based on a clip cut for more than ten seconds, an unfounded status line, and then take the name of justice to rush in and destroy a person or a brand," Mr. Long analyzed.
Looking back at many lessons that once shocked public opinion such as the rumor of traditional fish sauce contaminated with arsenic or a series of eateries and stores being "exposed" for falsehood to attract views... When functional agencies clarified the truth, many individuals and businesses had long been "in ruins".
