China celebrity commits suicide live on social media by drinking pesticides
The suicide of a social media celebrity in China on Thursday, October 14, prompted experts to demand more regulation against the dissemination of violent content and self-harm, in particular.
Here, a young person consults his smartphone in Beijing, October 11, 2020 © Nicolas Asfouri, AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
A 25-year-old Chinese celebrity ended her life live on social media, swallowing pesticides on Thursday, October 14.
While the family accuses its subscribers of having encouraged the gesture of the vlogger, the drama has prompted many experts to demand a strengthening of the supervision of live online, in particular to interrupt their broadcasting in these cases.
Advertising
Read more
With our correspondent in Beijing,
Stéphane Lagarde
Screenshots of the young woman holding a bottle of pesticide have gone viral.
With this question that agitates social networks: should Internet users who witnessed the suicide live be held responsible?
According to Chinese media, "Luoxiaomaomaozi", as she called herself online, ended her life on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) in front of some of her 678,000
followers.
"
This is not an advertisement to sell products
," she warned Thursday, October 14.
This is probably my last video because I suffer from depression.
"
A cry for help that obviously did not only arouse empathy: other screenshots show messages encouraging the influencer to "
drink quickly
" the toxic chemical mixed with a drink.
The latter immediately lost consciousness after swallowing the poison.
Driven to the emergency room, the doctors were unable to do anything.
Live streaming supervision
"Luoxiaomaomaozi" had mentioned suicidal thoughts after breaking up with her boyfriend last April.
But some of her friends believe, however, that she made this fatal gesture because she would have been
pushed by Internet users
.
Pesticides remain
the most widely used mode of suicide in China
, but never before during
live streaming.
According to the daily
Beijing News
, the family intends to file a complaint against the malicious trolls.
Experts
quoted by the state press
called for a strengthening of the supervision of live by platforms, in particular via keywords and artificial intelligence making it possible to interrupt broadcasting.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
China
Social issues
Social networks
Internet