WebProNews » Suicide

Suicides at the LA Times

Shawn Hess — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:24:09 +0000

An operations plant worker and a company truck driver committed suicide just recently after being laid off from the LA Times staff. The big layoff happened just before the Christmas holiday.

Recently fired blogging pressman Ed Padgett had some interest commentary regarding the layoffs:

“Those folks each got $20,000 in severance,” claims Padgett about the suicides.

Padgett also comments on how he and others were accused of planning a sabotage at LA Times:

“Two of the fellows were let go two weeks early because they were worried about sabotage. They’re so paranoid, because it’s not just my department — it includes editorial.”

Reportedly, the layoffs came just before the company decided to give huge bonuses to management at the organization.

Facebook, Google Step Up Suicide Prevention During Holidays

Drew Bowling — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:48:13 +0000

Depression is already a difficult monster to grapple with during any time of year, but holidays can exacerbate the intensity of that illness and, sadly, cause depressive individuals to contemplate suicide more seriously than usual. Blame the added stress of the holiday festivities, the increased despondence felt by absent family or friends, or the acute and insufferable awareness that you are not as joyful as those around you – whatever it is, the holidays can be brutal on a person vulnerable to depression.

Given that online activity, whether through search engines or social media sites, has become so interwoven into the fabric of our lives, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people with suicidal inclinations may resort to the Internet for support, information, or even assistance in trying to commit suicide. Acknowledging this phenomenon, Google and Facebook, perhaps the two largest online entities today, have taken steps to hopefully redirect people exhibiting thoughts of suicide.

Although the service has been around since Spring 2010, Google will insert information about prevention for searches that indicate a person may be considering suicide. I tested this out and Googled several suicide-likely phrases (“how to kill myself,” “suicide,” and “I want to die”) in the search engine. Although I got different returns for each search, the following information for how to contact a suicide hotline was promoted at the top of my page every time:

Unfortunately, that kind of information will only be displayed with Google.com, Google UK, and Google Australia. In a recent thread on HackerNews about depression, Google’s Matt Cutts responded to a post from a user that lamented the lack of suicide prevention information for other countries. While Cutts said that getting the numbers for different countries “might be tricky,” he did agree to pass the request on (though, really Google – how hard is that to do?)

Facebook has implemented a more direct line of intervention by allowing users to now report suicidal content to Facebook. The social media site launched a new reporting service yesterday that will put users who post statements or material that indicates they could be suicidal in touch with a crisis counselor through a chat messaging system. A person must be reported by one of their friends before being contacted by a counselor, but after that they will be able to chat with a prevention specialist from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to receive assistance with their crisis.

The process for reporting a potentially suicidal Facebook user isn’t exactly clear cut on their site as I couldn’t find any option that allowed me to report someone immediately. I ended up doing a search on Google for “how to report suicidal content facebook” and quickly found my way to this page:

In addition to following the links for immediate assistance, by clicking on the link to report suicidal content to Facebook, a user will arrive at here:

Additionally, here is the link for the page to report suicidal content on Facebook.

If anyone you know has posted statements on Facebook that indicate they may be at risk for suicide, please do not hesitate to notify Facebook. Also, if anyone you know has expressed any intent to possibly commit suicide, do not hesitate to get them help.

Ilya Zhitomirskiy Update: Reports Show Diaspora Co-Founder Committed Suicide

Jeremy Muncy — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:53:52 +0000

Over the weekend we reported on the death of Ilya Zhitomirskiy, one of the four co-founders of Diaspora. It was quite tragic, seeing how he was only 22 years old.

Up to this point little was known about Zhitomirskiy’s death, but it now appears that he committed suicide. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that a source colse to Diaspora told CNNMoney that Zhitomirskiy took his own life.

The Tribune confirmed with the San Francisco Police Department a police report that officers responded to the 700 block of Treat Ave. around 8:10 PM Saturday. They were dispatched after receiving calls about a possible suicide. “It appears to be a suicide … however, the medical examiner’s office will make the final decision“, said SFPD Officer Alvie Esparza. It’s likely to be several weeks before we know for certain that Zhitomirskiy did in fact commit suicide. If you’d like to read more about Zhitomirskiy, you can visit FamousDead.com.

If you’re unfamiliar with Zhitomirskiy, he was one of the four co-founders of Diaspora, a free personal web server that implements a distributed social networking service.

Below is a video of the four co-founders discussing Diaspora:

Diaspora: Personally Controlled, Do-It-All, Distributed Open-Source Social Network from daniel grippi on Vimeo.

Don Lapre, Famous Internet Marketer Commits Suicide

John Vinson — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:04:16 +0000

Don Lapre was a famous and infamous internet marketer who committed suicide over the weekend while waiting in jail for his trial. Lapre had been arrested for 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, promotional money laundering, and transactional money laundering.

Lapre started his business in 1990, based around credit repair. Soon after he began selling booklets, helping people receive a FHA insurance refund after their mortgages had been paid. This led to his first big moneymaker, when he started an infomercial stating people could make $50,000 a week using his strategy which was based around “tiny classified ads” in newspapers.

Lapre’s first trouble with the law came in 2005, when the FDA accused Lapre of making false promises about a vitamin he was involved in selling. His business claimed the vitamin would assist against diseases such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease, insomnia, cancer, and arthritis. He would receive two warnings from the FDA before finally taking “The Greatest Vitamin in the World” website down.

Lapre would come to be monitored by consumer watchdog groups, claiming Lapre was selling false get-rich-quick-schemes online. On June 8th, 2011, Lapre was indicted by a grand jury for selling worthless internet businesses. He was accused of scamming 220,000 victims out of $52 million. On October 2, Lapre died from what appears to be suicide, but his death is still under investigation.

On his site DonLapre.com, there are photos of Lapre’s house and family along with a lengthy goodbye message.

I tried to create the best product on earth, paid out millions, made very little trying to make it a success, had attorneys review my entire company, paid out millions in refunds, tried to make the commission and products better every single year, and in spite of all that, I have been accused of something I did not do. I did not have the perfect company but never once did I allow one thing to be done that would violate any law. Nevertheless, because the majority of people did not make money, in spite of everyone of them being able to make as many $1000 checks as they wanted, I am left to fight a battle that will for sure destroy what energy I have left inside… I hope the pictures below motivate you to take a chance in life and try to do the impossible… It did not work out for me with my vitamins but I believe that being willing to fail is part of having a chance at success…. Never stop dreaming and for all those who sent me testimonials of what you did because of some of my help, I am grateful I made a small difference in your life…

Google Responds To “Suicide” Queries

Doug Caverly — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:16:45 +0000

The search giant that does everything from take pictures of city streets to research solar power may manage to save some human lives, too. Google’s started to provide people who search for certain suicide-related terms with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s phone number.

Queries for terms and phrases like "suicide," "how to commit suicide," and "ways to commit suicide" now return a red phone icon and the hotline number above the first search result, making them impossible to miss.

This counts as a pretty significant change. Dr. Roni Zeiger, Google’s chief health strategist, explained to Noam Cohen that his company’s only tailored its responses in this manner once before, providing a poison control number after one mother made a suggestion.

Of course, many phrases related to suicide still don’t trigger anything aside from ordinary search results, and it’s hard to say if the image of a red telephone will deter anyone from ending his or her life.

Additional adjustments may be on the way, though, considering that Zeiger told Cohen, "We looked at many of the possible queries that could reflect interest in the topic. We are starting relatively conservatively."

Lori Drew Charged In MySpace Suicide

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:48:17 +0000

Megan Meier’s suicide after breaking up with a fake boyfriend created by Drew on MySpace led to her indictment on federal charges.

A federal grand jury found cause to charge Drew with conspiracy and computer fraud associated with the creation of the MySpace profile that authorities and Meier’s parents believe drove the 13 year old girl to hang herself in October 2006.

The LA Times said the grand jury in Los Angeles resulted from federal prosecutors seeing a Los Angeles connection, due to MySpace being based in the city. An attorney for Drew denied her client having any involvement with the MySpace profile for the fake ‘Josh Evans’.

“This adult woman allegedly used the Internet to target a teenage girl with horrendous ramifications,” US Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien said. “This was a tragedy that did not have to happen.”

O’Brien’s office released a statement saying the indictment alleges Drew violated the MySpace terms of service in creating the phony Josh Evans.

“The conspiracy count carries a maximum statutory penalty of five years in federal prison. Each count of accessing protected computers, each of which alleges that the access was for the purpose of intentionally inflicting emotional distress on (Megan Meier), carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison,” the statement said.

“That girl later committed suicide after the ‘boy’ spurned her and told her, among other things, that the world would be a better place without her,” it continued.

Suicide Promotion Sites More Common Than Prevention Sites

Mike Sachoff — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:51:49 +0000

Internet users who go online to find out information about suicide are more likely to find sites that promote the act than sites offering support, a study says.

Researchers used four search engines to find suicide related sites, according to a study in the British Medical Journal. The three sites that appeared most frequently in the search results all promoted suicide.

The researchers, from Bristol, Oxford and Manchester universities, used 12 suicide related search terms to conduct their study. They looked at the first 10 sites in each search, receiving a total of 480 hits.

Overall, the searches found 240 unique sites. Slightly less than half of the sites provided information about methods of suicide. Nearly 19 percent of hits were considered to be encouraging, promoting, or facilitating suicide. Just 13 percent of the sites were for suicide prevention or support and only 12 percent actively discouraged suicide.

The study concludes that," The differing content identified with the four search engines indicates that it is possible to influence what searches retrieve. It may be more fruitful for service providers to pursue website optimization strategies to maximize the likelihood that suicidal people access helpful rather than potentially harmful sites in times of crisis."

Social Networks Connected To Teen Suicides

Doug Caverly — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:26:55 +0000

Cato the Elder once said, "I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one." But Cato the Elder died over 2,000 years ago, and somewhere along the way, a few kids seem to have gotten the idea that Bebo and MySpace pages are desirable memorials.

To head off any emails: there’s no need to take the previous statement as an insult aimed at dead children. It’s just that, as Peter Griffiths writes, "A British MP accused popular networking Web sites of ‘romanticizing death’ on Wednesday after the suicides of seven young people in the last year around a small town in South Wales."

And things on MySpace and its social networking counterparts can get rather strange. Again, we’ll freely admit that touching tributes can take place online, but when a sort of "I’ll make the world miss me" mentality centers on a pink, teal, and black page with emo music playing in the background, something has gone awry.

An article and discussion at Jezebel address the issue at some length, although a cure for depression or surefire way to prevent suicide is not mentioned. Our own, admittedly inexpert, recommendation (which follows some of the commenters’ thoughts): watch a pug lick your computer screen.