China: Suicide attempts go live online

A series of suicide attempts have recently gone live on popular Chinese microblog website after a teenager who killed himself gave live updates of his suicide on Sina Weibo Sunday, sparking a lively debate over social media's responsibility.

Four unverified suicide attempts were staged on Sina Weibo on Monday, after a 19-year-old man surnamed Zeng committed "live" suicide after a romantic breakup and was later found dead in Luzhou, Sichuan Province.

The live posts consisted of photos and details of the suicides, but people shown in four recent posts have not been confirmed dead by the police.

Netizens claim one of those posts is a hoax.

• Some Net users called on the social network operator to immediately block such posts and alert the police to prevent sensationalism, since suicides could be contagious.

• "We will freeze the accounts of those who post suspected suicide attempts to stop them from spreading. We will also report these cases to the police," Sina Weibo's marketing department said in a statement sent to the Global Times Wednesday.

The company also suggests that Web users refrain from reposting similar entries, and to call the police instead.

However, some social network analysts said that such measures may deter others from helping desperate people.

Wang Zhi'an, a member of Sina Weibo's community supervision committee, told the Global Times that the measure is unlikely to work because it is difficult for the police to locate these people by themselves.

Guo Zhibin, an Internet media professor at Nanchang University, said "other Web users, including the suicide victims' friends, can provide the police with more information."

A Net user "Su Siaomoer" in Jinan, Shandong Province, who attempted to kill herself, was encouraged by netizens and rescued by local police in 2010.

 "From 2009 to 2012, more than 20 suicide attempts were staged on Sina Weibo, but the number had subsided until the Sunday incident," Guo said.

The drop in online suicide attempts may show that netizens have grown tired of the live updates and that the fake suicide attempts failed to gain attention, Guo said.
By Chen Heying Source: Global Times Published: 2014-12-4
 http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/894937.shtml 
3-4/12/14
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