Were iPhones the cause of explosions in Vietnam that killed two people? No, that's not true: the anecdotes presented in the video do not cite real articles but are similar to cases reported by a local Vietnamese news outlet that either found counterfeit cables to be at fault or did not report the brand of the phone.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published on TikTok by @rhlekagkfajsl on October 1, 2022. The video featured an iPhone with scorched edges placed on a charging cable, accompanied by a message (translated from Korean into English by Lead Stories staff) that read:
Do not use iPhones!
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jul 28 13:52:56 2023 UTC)
Following that, the video shows a written message asserting that two incidents of users' deaths were linked to iPhone usage. The first incident, as claimed, involved a fifth grader named Nguyen Thai Tai, who allegedly died when his phone exploded while he was listening to an online lecture. The second instance concerned an 18-year-old named Luong Xuan Truong, who reportedly lost his life when his phone exploded during charging. These are likely made-up names, with likely scenarios.
iPhones have exploded in Vietnam, but the fault wasn't found with the phone itself, but rather with the charging cables. The video's opening photo was from an article by Tuoi Tre News, a local media outlet, about the death of an 18-year-old named Pham The Tai in Vietnam's Central Highlands. While the photo shows an iPhone, the charging cable was not made by Apple. Tuoi Tre News wrote (translated from Japan into English by Lead Stories staff):
An investigation showed that neither the power adapter nor the USB cable was manufactured by Apple.
The first case described in the video bears resemblance to another report by the same outlet about a fifth grader who was attending an online class from his home when his phone caught on fire, but the "brand of the phone remains unreported," according to Tuoi Tre News.
