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    Suicide forum fined £950k under Online Safety Act
    United Kingdom

    Suicide forum fined £950k under Online Safety Act

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    16 Comments

    1. McDutchie on

      It’s a non-UK site, they’re not under UK jurisdiction, so this is a non-starter.

      This used to be a specifically American kind of arrogance, but it seems the UK now also thinks its laws apply worldwide.

    4. a-hthy on

      I went on this website a few years ago when I was at my lowest. At the time it felt like the only place where people understood what I was feeling but thinking about it now it was actually really horrific and the content is not something I hope to see again. I would honestly advise people not to seek this stuff out. It does not help. I promise.

    5. Ready-Zombie5635 on

      The government won’t be happy until they’ve created the Starmernet, with just the BBC, Gov UK, and Labour party home pages available on it. Absolute nonsense.

    6. SecTeff on

      I looked up this site and it’s not as bad as Ofcom or people make out. I’d go so far as it’s mischaracterising it to present it as a suicide forum.

      Some posts are about suicide and some do encourage it or talk about methods.

      But most are about people with mental health problems getting support and discussing their problems as a community.

      That entire community feels very persecuted by these attacks on them.

      Maybe people should just go and talk and engage with them rather than trying to censor and shut them down.

      I’m not even sure it would be positive if people using it were suddenly shut out. Id worry about the impact of that happening.

    7. existentialgoof on

      Suppressing certain types of thought only ever ends up driving it underground; and the purpose of banning this site is to suppress any dissent from the government’s overbearing suicide prevention strategy. Whether or not life is always worth living is a legitimate line of philosophical inquiry; and the purpose of bans like this is to ensure that there is no avenue for public dissent against the government’s paternalistic suicide prevention strategy. It works the same way that a blasphemy law functions in Islamic country. The government has decided that the existential questions that are raised on sites like this are too dangerous and must be censored. Suicide has always been a contentious topic in philosophy, and will always remain so, no matter how strenuous the government’s attempts to infantilise us all.

      The government’s paternalistic approach will only serve to make people feel even more isolated and alienated from the rest of society; as there is no avenue for them to openly discuss their valid concerns with the overreach of the suicide prevention strategy. It makes the government look like they’re actively trying to hide something, if these are topics that aren’t even allowed to be discussed, even on an Internet message forum. It’s also never a good look to lump a vast and diverse group of people (namely, anyone who has ever seriously contemplated whether life is worth living) into a category in which everyone belonging in that category is considered mentally unfit to decide for themselves what content they can view on the Internet and what substances they can purchase for their own private use.

    9. jimjamming on

      If this is the website I think it is, I lost my best friend to it 2 months ago. He was deeply depressed and I believe found solace on the website, eventually learning of the method he used to take his life (+ how and where to get what is required). When I discovered it myself looking for answers, I was quite taken back by the content on there, including methods and guides like ‘how to beat survival instinct’ as well as ‘Goodbye threads’. I imagine when you’re that low, it’s reassuring to be with people that feel similar that probably make these negative thoughts seem rational.

      I’m very sad I lost my friend and the support he had wasn’t enough, but this was. I’ve gone through all sorts of emotions around this sort of content. Really makes you think. At least he isn’t in pain anymore I suppose.

    10. Several_Cold_7160 on

      A couple years ago when I took that dark path I waa reading a comment from 2003 about someone saying yes you’ll feeling down right now and it hurts but imagine the hurt that will come from you taking your life to your loved ones or it was like something more serious saying they felt sorry for having to read that post in that. It dodnt do anything tk dissuade me from changing my mind but it did leave an impact about how someone else wrote something 20 years ago they were feeling what I was fesling

    11. No_Weakness8999 on

      Has a single non-UK company paid one of these fines?

      Is there a conspiracy to just make the UK as uncompetitive as possible? Even our shit morality police laws are aimed at strangling our own whilr allowing others to fuck us over.

    15. PickIllustrious82 on

      Nanny Orwellian surveillance state strikes again.
      Wasn’t one of the arguments against the assisted dying bill being passed was that consenting adults can top themselves off without involving the state? Funny how that works out.

    16. lonelylamb1814 on

      Good! I ended up on this website a while ago when I was going through a really dark time and I couldn’t believe something like it even existed on the modern internet. Even at that point I knew it was so wrong. I would keep going back to it though, I can’t remember if I ever posted or just lurked but it certainly didn’t help my mindset to be digesting that sort of content. I still think about some of the things I read there when I’m not feeling great and I wish I never knew any of it. I think it’s true that exposure to this sort of thing makes suicide much more likely.