A nihilistic internet suicide forum implicated in over 160 UK deaths has been fined \u00a3950,000 by the online regulator in its latest attempt to shut it down.<\/p>\n
Ofcom said the US-based website remained accessible in the UK despite over a year of warnings. Online safety campaigners have accused the regulator of taking an \u201cinterminable\u201d amount of time to act.<\/p>\n
The Samaritans, mental health campaigners and the Molly Rose Foundation have repeatedly raised concerns about the site, which has remained accessible despite it being cited in multiple coroners\u2019 reports on the deaths of UK citizens.<\/p>\n
The Molly Rose Foundation<\/a> was set up in the memory of Molly Russell, a 14-year-old who took her own life<\/a> after descending into a vortex of negative online content, including about suicide. Its chief executive, Andy Burrows, welcomed the fine and a separate move that could block UK internet access to the site, but said it was \u201cappalling that it has been left to bereaved families and campaign groups to press Ofcom into action\u201d.<\/p>\n Ofcom has been trying to get the site to obey British laws criminalising intentionally encouraging or assisting suicide since last spring. It had some success with the site being blocked last July and then a mirror site being taken down in November. But it is now taking action because the site can be \u201cused by people in the UK, including without a VPN, and presents a material risk of significant harm\u201d.<\/p>\n The fine is being levied under the Online Safety Act which also allows Ofcom to seek a court for an order requiring internet service providers to block UK access to the site. The regulator is preparing an application to have the site\u2019s connections effectively cut \u201cif our concerns are not fully addressed and there continues to be an ongoing breach\u201d.<\/p>\n It accused the provider of \u201cserious and deliberate contraventions\u201d and said the fine reflected \u201cthe risk of fatal harm to people in the UK posed by the content present on the service\u201d.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the forum was unavailable but its operator posted a page that said it was advocating for \u201cthe right to access lawful information without government overreach\u201d and quoted Mark Twain: \u201cCensorship is telling a man he can\u2019t have a steak just because a baby can\u2019t chew it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Molly Rose Foundation and Together with Families and Survivors to Prevent Online Suicide Harms said coroners had warned the UK government<\/a> 65 times about risks of further deaths from the forum \u201cand a substance it promotes, glorifies and instructs for use as a suicide method\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2018We feel let down by the process and Ofcom\u2019s slow response to this threat to life,\u2019 said Adele Zeynep Walton<\/a>, a journalist and online safety campaigner. Photograph: Peter Flude\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Adele Zeynap Walton, the sister of Aimee Walton who took her life after accessing suicide forums, said the wait for action had been agonising. \u201cWhile we\u2019ve waited further lives have been lost and we\u2019ve had to fight every step,\u201d she said, speaking on behalf of Families and Survivors to Prevent Online Suicide Harms. \u201cWe feel let down by the process and Ofcom\u2019s slow response to this threat to life.\u201d<\/p>\n Burrows said: \u201cMolly Rose Foundation submitted detailed evidence which showed scores of vulnerable young people remained at risk while Ofcom\u2019s investigation dragged on \u2026 There are real questions about why it has taken so long for the regulator to act against a forum linked to at least 164 UK deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n Ofcom said it had \u201cengaged extensively\u201d with the forum provider and that last summer the forum had geoblocked mirror sites in the UK and later removed information on a landing page promoting ways to circumvent the block.<\/p>\n \u201cWe share the urgency about the extreme harms that sites such as this can cause, and understand the anger felt towards them by those who have been so personally affected,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cIt is vital that we ensure our enforcement action is thorough, and this can take time, as is the case for any enforcement agency.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLucas was 16. Vlad 17. Aimee 21. Grace, Hannah and Tom 22. Immy 25. Adam 28 and Claire 41,\u201d the campaign groups said in a report last year<\/a>. \u201cThey were drawn into a dark world that was allowed to exist online and continues to exist through the use of a VPN. We believe our loved ones suffered coercion, grooming, instruction on how to end their lives. Most accessed a poison that was allowed to cross borders or was readily available domestically.\u201d<\/p>\n Suzanne Cater, the director of enforcement at Ofcom, said the forum had \u201ccaused unimaginable pain and suffering \u2026 and no punishment can undo that harm\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe provider of this forum knows it\u2019s used to share illegal content encouraging and assisting suicide on their site,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile they\u2019ve responded to our enforcement action by making some changes to the accessibility of their service in the UK, this is not good enough and the changes they\u2019ve made were not consistently applied or effective to reduce the risk of harm. Given the ongoing risk of harm, we are using all powers available to us to protect the public.\u201d<\/p>\n In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans<\/a> can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org<\/a> or jo@samaritans.ie<\/a>. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline<\/a> at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org<\/a>. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline<\/a> is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nihilistic internet suicide forum implicated in over 160 UK deaths has been fined \u00a3950,000 by the online…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-581837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}