Social Media platforms TikTok and Facebook scrambled to remove a video of a man who took his own life and live-streamed it in the said sites.
Social networking sites are under siege for not responding quickly enough to get rid of the video clip that has now circulated online, while users were being warned not to click on the clip if it happens to appear on their news feeds.
According to Facebook, the suicide video of McNutt has been taken down by the platform on the day it was streamed but the said clip has been widely shared on TikTok with the application striving to shut-down re-uploads that may become viral right away, Mirror reported.
Ronnie McNutt, 33 years old, was the man who filmed his own death at home while sitting in front of a desk.
A friend of McNutt wrote, asking for prayers for the man's family and added that McNutt committed suicide while broadcasting it on Facebook is something that could not be unseen.
McNutt's friend tried to reach him but failed since it was not quick enough.
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Ronnie McNutt's death took place in Mississippi on the 31st of August, with the TikTok app seriously striving to remove any clips of McNutt's suicide and banning anyone who re-uploads it on the app.
Several reports said the clip was seen on TikTok's "For You" trending homepage, which could be a possible reason that it was more difficult to avoid.
Numerous social media users have admitted they accidentally watched the video, and have alerted other users not to click on the thumbnail, showing a bearded man wearing eyeglasses speaking to another person on the phone, as reported by Daily Star.
One Twitter user posted, alerting people to avoid and scroll up immediately, once they see a guy, referring to McNutt, on TikTok's "For You Page", describing the clip to be very gruesome and at the same time suggesting people to avoid using the app for some time.
Another post said a video of a guy killing himself with a shotgun appeared while the netizen was scrolling TikTok, warned people not to watch, or even to search for the video since it was very terrifying and alerted people to be very careful in using the application.
As stated by the spokesperson of TikTok, on Sunday night, clips of the Facebook live-stream video of a man committing suicide have circulated on other social media platforms, which included TikTok.
Moreover, TikTok's spokesperson said the clips of McNutt's death have been automatically detected and flagged by the system for breaching the app's rules against contents showing, glorifying, praising, or promoting suicide.
The spokesperson articulated the application is currently banning TikTok accounts, which have been identified to have repeatedly tried uploading the clips of McNutt's suicide, adding that they really appreciated the community members of TikTok who have reported the content and alerted other users of the app to refrain from engaging, watching, or sharing related videos on any social media platform, as a sign of respect for the person and their family.
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