I have another question, a main topic on the forum is about the Suicide Wiki, it seems that at some point you decided to leave this site that was linked directly to SS. Could you explain the reason for this decision? And why don't you just hand over the site to the new administrator as well? Did maintaining the site represent a danger to the entire staff?
The wiki was a side project really. I didn't really see it as useful, as it pretty much was a copy of what was on the forum. It didn't serve a purpose
Tantacrul here. Can verify myself by making a public comment on my video or something similar.
So, to start, the 'assessment' by the OP of this thread is laughable. It states that my video is bullshit even though the following statements are demonstrably true:
Who died and made you the arbiter of truth? You told demonstrable lies about the site and the OP is actually correct in this case and it was written by a neutral party with no input from either side. When neutral observers call you out on your obvious bullshit, then something is definitely up. It's laughable that you've even showed up here considering that your video is mostly constructed of lies, some of its pure fabrication. Not only that, but you also tried to lead a crusade to get the site shut down.
Simply put you made a video on a topic that you clearly don't understand, and it just seems like you either feel guilty about what happened and felt like you needed to do something, or you are simply using suicide as an issue to grandstand on to gain clout, neither of which will get to the core of the issue of why sites like SS exist.
Now to pick apart your flimsy counterpoints:
- The site contains statements of encouragement for anon users to kill themselves on a daily basis (breaking the supposed main rule of the site)
The site doesn't contain any statements of encouragement and I have yet to have seen anyone encourage suicide in any public thread. This is demonstrably false and is easily proven by just simply browsing the forum. When I ran the forum, I made sure that there was no encouragement of suicide. And no, well wishes don't count as "encourging suicide".
- The site contains multiple threads where people ask to be DM'd the email addresses of sellers from whom they can buy poisons to kill themselves on a daily basis. They are then given this information (I experienced this personally and I purchased a method myself by following this exact procedure. It was simple.)
That's not the site's problem. What people do outside of the side or email is none of our business, and we've never made it our business to police outside activity. If trading happened on the site, then under my leadership we took action, but outside of that - the forum isn't a marketplace.
- The site has instruction threads which were (until my vid came out) publicly available to anyone. They'll be made publicly available again when the hear dies down. This is also what they did when the NYT article came out.
Sure, but those same instructions are available in books on Amazon and requires no ID or verification to purchase. It being available on the forum has no bearing on anything we're talking about here today.
- The site has an instruction thread for buying SN which leads to Exit International, which requires a subscription to join. This is undeniably true
Exit International is a separate organization that sells the PPH and has no affiliation with us whatsoever. They sell their own products and people are free to purchase them. I believe the PPH is posted for free on our website anyways, which makes this point moot. Another example of your great research skills.
- The site has a partners section which has been used by predators to target vulnerable young people (leading to a prosecution of one user in Glasgow, which I discuss in the video). The site has not removed the partners section in response. They think it's fine that it remains as is.
Doesn't break any laws, and there are numorous warnings on the thread and in the rules regarding using it.
- The site verifiably coached a 17 year old to kill himself. This kid was not the first minor the site has helped to die.
Your opinion, and your definition of "coached" is skewed. This is more charged language that really doesn't mean much.
- As mentioned by others in this thread, the main mascot of the site, who posts morbid nonsense about how everyone should die because life is a cruel mistake - is actively protected by the admin despite constant complaints from other users on the forum who rightly see these posts as toxic and dangerous, given the highly vulnerable nature of many of those on SS.
This is addressed enough in the thread, no need for me to readdress it.
- The site is a 'free speech' site.... unless someone dares to challenge it too effectively. If you do that, you get banned.
False. The site is so that suicidal people can express opinions without being judged or without being fired from their jobs or shunned by their friends for having suicidal thoughts.
Take those points together and you have the substance of my video. Pretty difficult to see how this can be picked apart, since most of the points are simple statements of fact.
I easily took it apart above.
- I do not make a judgement about section 230 or whether or not free speech should be curtailed in my video. I simply point out that the debate exists. I have very nuanced feelings about this topic... but in general I am very uneasy with the idea of applying rules that limit free speech. I just felt that my own opinions were not massively relevant. I expected people to make up their own minds. The OP states that my aim is to kill section 230, which is a moronic reading.
You do, but you don't make that judgement directly. You complimented Kelli Wilson (founder of FixThe26) many times, and their main goal is to make changes to section 230. You got almost all of your talking points from this group as well, and it's clear from the video that you made that a good amount of the points you made are pure speculation or just plain false.
There have been many statements to the effect: 'why are we talking about taking down the site, when the REAL problem is the wider world that drives people to feel suicidal in the first place?'. This is an irrelevant criticism. I am not discussing the causes of suicidal ideation. I'm discussing how badly SS misinforms people who are experiencing suicidal ideation. I do not need to discuss why suicidal people feel suicidal in order to make the case that SS is doing an incredibly bad job at providing support for them. This is not rocket science, guys.
You say that the site is dangerous, but I would argue that the vast majority of people that visit the site do not end up killing themselves, and you made very weak arguments to why we should censor this one particular site and not others. I would argue that SS does a very good job (as a discussion forum can do) at letting people vent and preventing many people from ending their lives. Many only hear about the suicides, but there are many success stories about people leaving the forum and being better off for it. This is an anecdote, but there are many people that have reached out to me personally, thanking me for founding the site and they told me how it allowed them to move on with their lives.
It is clear that you have a savior complex and what you have done is nothing new. The NYT did it before you, and much better. You retreaded ground that was laid out before you and you inserted your own opinions and conjecture into it. Shutting down forums or websites will only cover up this problem and will NOT prevent suicides or deaths. People that are determined will dig and find information on how to end their lives, they do not need a website to tell them how to do it.
To state that I am attacking any kind of personal freedom is nonsense. I am simply against SS because it is run by idiots who cause enormous harm to vulnerable people.
You are though, you wasted your time by trying to rebuke this thread. You're the only "idiot" here. You made a Youtube video to gain clout, and you did it off the back of a dead 17-year-old. You must feel very proud.