An Australian called Phuc Dat Bich whose claim that Facebook discriminated against him because of his name has announced that it was a hoax.
In January, a man posted to Facebook a screenshot of an Australian passport that appeared to show his full legal name was Phuc Dat Bich, claiming that he had been accused of “using a false and misleading name” and had his account shut down multiple times.
The post went viral in mid-November and was picked up by the world’s media, including the BBC though Phuc Dat Bich gave no interviews.
In a mea culpa posted to Facebook, still titled Phuc Dat Bich, on Wednesday, the 23-year-old Melbourne man who likened himself to the boy who cried wolf admitted that the name change and doctored image was part of a prank intended to fool the news media and highlight shortcomings of Facebook’s “real name” policy.
In a post signed “Joe Carr” (understood to refer to “joker”), he wrote: “Facebook needs to understand that it is utterly impossible to legitimise a place where there will always be pranksters and tricksters.
“What started as a joke between friends, became a prank that made a fool out of the media and brought out the best in the people who reached out to me. It didn’t bring out the anger and darkness that we often see on the internet, but it brought a levity and humanity in a time we need it most.
“Out of this ordeal I’ve concluded not to trust the credibility of the media, it’s twisted by the hungry journalists who mask the truth … It goes to show that an average joe like myself can con the the biggest news sources with ease.”
He told Guardian Australia that his name was Tin Le, and that he was 23 and lived in Melbourne, but refused requests for verification. “Well, you’ll just have to have faith and run with what you have,” he said. “I’m too tired with it all. Call me Mr T.”
One of his Facebook friends confirmed that his name was Tin Le.
Though Phuc Dat Bich’s employer was listed as the National Australia Bank, Le declined to name his employer; a spokeswoman for NAB said she was unable to comment on employment matters.
Le said that he “wanted to make a point, to make people happy” with the prank. He had not decided whether to change the name of the Facebook profile, which was still listed as Phuc Dat Bich on Wednesday.
His pranks didn’t fool everybody though.
Suspicions were aroused by technology publisher and journalist Trevor Long who wrote this prescient post on his website EFTM examining the evidence and concluding it was probably fake.
“What is the evidence?” Long asked. “His passport. Not that a journalist from any of the above organisation have sighted his passport – that he posted a photo of his passport on Facebook.
“My view is that the photo on Facebook is curious at best. I mean have a look at his name, the weight of the font on the passport page is entirely different to the rest of the page.”
By the end of the day Long was proved correct.
Before the admission that was the name a hoax, Huy Luu, a qualified Vietnamese teacher and senior staff member at the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association, told Guardian Australia: “This is the first time in my entire life to learn that a Vietnamese person could have his or her family name as ‘Bich’,” he wrote. “His ‘full name’ is all middle name(s) and or first name(s).
“I do not think that we should judge him without knowing him. Nevertheless, I think that he would be really stupid to alter his name of a copy of his passport, as I believe that it is a crime to do so.”
Physically altering a passport – legal or illegal – is illegal across the world.
