Jack Dorsey Responds To Serial Killer Who Found His Victims Through Suicidal Twitter Posts (nhk.or.jp)

AmiMoJo shares a report from NHK WORLD: Twitter's CEO is reacting to a grisly case in Japan where a suspected serial killer allegedly found his victims through their suicidal posts on the social media platform. In an interview with NHK, Jack Dorsey said it is unrealistic and impossible to remove suicidal tweets. But he said he hoped Twitter could become a tool for prevention. Last month, the dismembered bodies of 9 people were found in 27-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi's apartment near Tokyo. Police say he admitted to the killings. They believe he preyed on people who posted about wanting to kill themselves on Twitter. Recently, Twitter updated its rules regarding posts about self-harm: "You may not promote or encourage suicide or self-harm. When we receive reports that a person is threatening suicide or self-harm, we may take a number of steps to assist them, such as reaching out to that person and providing resources such as contact information for our mental health partners."

Comments

Nobody cares

[rsilvergun]

Until you've got a gun in your hand. Try getting help if you're or your loved one isn't actively trying to commit suicide. Bottom line mental health care is expensive and nobody wants to pay for it. Especially when it's so easy to tell somebody to get over it, it's all in your head.

Re: Nobody cares

[Anonymous Coward]

The reason they're committing suicide is usually because, at the time, they think it's better than staying alive. This can be a very temporary state, and why they need help. It could also be that they're terminally ill and the rest of their life isn't going to be any better than unconsciousness.

Re: Nobody cares

[Anonymous Coward]

The biggest reason people commit suicide is because they have mental health issues. How they are treated can play a big part in that, they have to have a predisposition to depression and suicidal thoughts to begin with. Some people may use the term weak to describe the people with these mental health issue. Which really isn't fair, they need help.

In reality, few, if any, really want someone else to pull the trigger. Most people considering suicide do not want to die, but for some reason they cannot see past their situation to a solution to get out of it and they take an easy way out.

Re: Nobody cares

[Hal_Porter]

Suicidal tenancies suck. They don't pay the rent and the poor landlord has to clean up after them. And by the end of the contract they'd be good and ripe too!

Re:Nobody cares

[tehcyder]

Until you've got a gun in your hand. Try getting help if you're or your loved one isn't actively trying to commit suicide. Bottom line mental health care is expensive and nobody wants to pay for it. Especially when it's so easy to tell somebody to get over it, it's all in your head.

Yup. It's part of why people self harm with blades. Visible, blood and everything, but controllable and safe. The hospital has proof that you did actually hurt yourself and you get the help you need.

Whereas you can't shoot yourself in the head or hang yourself a little bit unless you really know what you're doing.

The Changing World

[LeftCoastThinker]

Mental health care and mental illness has always been problematic, and while in the past it was primarily the responsibility of friends and family to take action if there was a concern, with our increasingly connected society, there is increased responsibility to escalate posts of concern to the proper authorities/mental health professionals. The problem with Facebook, Google and the other internet monopolies is that they want this massive marketshare, but then are demonstrably incapable of handling the responsibilities that come with it.

Re:The Changing World

[Anonymous Coward]

And who says responsibility comes with it? Why is it their job suddenly because they make a generic way to talk to others? When phone networks went up was it suddenly Bell's job to listen in and report anyone talking about killing themselves?

Re:The Changing World

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you think OP was a cry for help? Maybe Slashdot should report it.

Re:The Changing World

[Wrath0fb0b]

while in the past it was primarily the responsibility of friends and family to take action if there was a concern [about mental illness]

For the vast majority of people in the past, if you were crazy you lived as a vagrant or a beggar and died in pretty short order afterwards. Nobody gave a shit about your life even if you wanted to stay alive, let alone if you wanted to off yourself. If you came from a moderately wealthy family, you might get to live in a horrific asylum (and that was in the 19th century, not even talking about medieval times, which holy crap they'd probably assume you were possessed by a demon and flay you to save your soul) instead of dying of pneumonia on the streets.

I don't know what sugar coated history books they taught you, but the past is fucking bleak and miserable.

Re:The Changing World

[LeftCoastThinker]

I was referring to the more recent past: 1950s through 1970s where involuntary commitment in sanitariums kept the mentally ill from harming themselves or others. It was certainly not perfect, but after the 1970s where the ACLU essentially eliminated involuntary commitment, we are back to the mentally ill living on the streets and sleeping in doorways... No one is saying the mentally ill have had it easy throughout history, but at least in the 1960s they had a roof over their head and 3 square meals a day and someone trying to help them.

Re:The Changing World

[AmiMoJo]

It's a moral responsibility. Human beings sometimes feel those.

Re:The Changing World

[DarkOx]

and other times that child the step parent did not really want, or troublesome younger sister you did not want to deal with, ended up with a twist drill inserted into their head.

Re:The Changing World

[Wrath0fb0b]

OK fair enough. And I have no dispute that, while the asylums were awful, de-institutionalization was also (a different kind of) awful.

What I will continue stand by, however, is that pointing to very recent developments (~50 years, out of 3000 years of human history) and referring to it as "the past" is incredibly selective.

Re:The Changing World

[Wrath0fb0b]

Or sold into slavery. Or impressed into the army or navy. Or prostituted. For most of history, the majority of humans existing in some form of slavery/serfdom in which they had zero agency whatsoever.

It just annoys me that our current discourse is so fragile that we feel the need to whitewash the past. And I think it contributes to a lot of errors in our thinking because we lost the perspective of where we came from and how things were. We think that things are going downhill in our country (here in the US) even though 100 years ago we still had Jim Crow and 200 years ago we still had slavery. Europeans are pessimistic, even though 200 years ago they were still fighting wars over whether Protestants would be allows to practice in Catholic countries and vice versa.

We have it so goddamned good (obviously the present is not perfect, the US still has racism, Europe still has divisions, that's a straw man argument) that we became soft and then our softness made us unable to comprehend the horrors of history which, in turn, made us unable to understand how good we have it. It's pervasive.

Re:The Changing World

[Kielistic]

Does the owner of a coffee shop have to actively monitor all conversations between patrons and interfere with anything deemed "problematic"?

Re:The Changing World

[LeftCoastThinker]

The history I am referring to is the recent past, something like 1950 to 1970, after which the ACLU eliminated involuntary confinement, and the government shut down the majority of sanitariums in favor of "pill" treatments which clearly do not work for a large swath of the mentally ill. Were there historically a few people committed who did not be long? I am sure there were and it was shitty for them. That single issue could have been more easily addressed with some form of independent federal oversight, rather than completely shutting down the system as was actually done by the ACLU and the supreme court.

In the real world, no system is perfect. However, we have reverted to the state that the mentally ill existed in for the last 3000 years, being treated like human garbage, living on the street, committing assaults and murders on themselves or the public. The progress that had been made with involuntary commitment was wiped out by the misguided lawyers at the ACLU, and now we have to live with the result, where we have paranoid schizophrenics and psychotics and sociopaths running around free in a society where we have a lot of individual responsibility (in the form of cars, guns and the easy ability to make bombs, etc.) Rather than limiting the freedom of everyone, we need to realize that the mentally ill do not need freedom, they need protection from themselves, and it may not be pretty, but that is the truth of the matter.

Re:The Changing World

[LeftCoastThinker]

It is true that we have it good, and to a large extent, the reason we have it good is because we used to have the majority of the electorate in the US well educated and capable of thinking for themselves. They cared about truth and pursued it and they voted based on the truth they had found. The system was never perfect, but it was continuously getting better, and then the Democrats realized that they were losing power, so they switched their focus from graft, election rigging and political beatings and started focusing on identity politics, brainwashing in state run schools, and controlling the narrative by controlling the media. In the last 8 years, the alt-left progressives almost succeeded in destroying the country. They have been importing 3rd world peasants both legally and illegally by the millions per year, and enacting legislation that was destroying the middle class. The goal of the alt left is to get 60% of the voting population as ignorant, illiterate peasants who will vote Democrat in exchange for handouts and table scraps. At that point, the Dims can do whatever the hell they want and always get elected and the country as we know it will be gone. They already succeeded in California. Before the amnesty that they talked Regan into, California was a Republican state with a history of Republican governors. After the 1986 amnesty, California became a guaranteed blue state.

Almost every liberal I have ever spoken to is convinced of their virtue over everyone else, they are confident in their superiority, but they can't argue their position out of a paper bag, because they don't have a clue about logic or the actual facts, it is all emotion, backstopped by their education on what to think and the fake news media. If their population grows large enough, the US will devolve into a third world cesspool of corruption like Mexico or Venezuela. Both of whom used to be much better off with a democratic government, but who lost their countries through ignorance and government handouts.

The price of freedom is not only eternal vigilance, but knowledge and keeping abreast of the issues and facts and the capability of wading through the bullshit and emotion.

Logical conclusion

[Anonymous Coward]

Matching supply with demand. What could be more capitalist than that?

Re:Logical conclusion

[TheCastro1689]

Another article talked about it, he would message them, then direct message them, then encourage them to meet him to help the die or something.

Bad idea

[countach]

Surely we wouldn't want to censor the cry for help that could save their life? This serial killer thing is a one off.

Re:Bad idea

[AmiMoJo]

Who said anything about censoring cries for help?

The Twitter ToS say you can't encourage other people to harm themselves. Saying you want to harm yourself is fine, although if someone flags it Twitter might intervene somehow such as calling local medical services.

Bullshit

[rsilvergun]

treat them with respect _before_ they want to die. It's like the right wing being anti-abortion and then cutting child insurance programs. Nobody really gives a fuck. They just want to seem like they do.

I think you're unclear

[rsilvergun]

on the concept of 'suicide'. It doesn't mean killing other people.

Re:I think you're unclear

[Opportunist]

But if you're suicidal, the military ain't the worst place to be either.

Re:Shut up Dorsey

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody cares about your sewer of the internet. Twitter is for the sub 100 IQ crowd. Eternal September took roost in Twitter and Facebook.

You managed that in under 140 chars ... join us!

Caring == extra costs for Twitter

[thesjaakspoiler]

So never expect any empathy from Jack Dorsey because any attempt to intervene is a penny from his own pocket/bonus.

Mental illness is not the problem

[whyyisthissohard]

Desperation and grief are not mental illnesses. They are sound and logical reactions to a hostile environment.

We have to stop pretending that everything in our westernized societies is okay and that the people who can't adapt are insane somehow. It's not these people that need treatment by and large, it's this society that needs treatment.

The few cases of people born with clear physical defects that lead to depression are not a significant fraction of people who commit suicide or want to.

Re:What Twitter should do?

[antifoidulus]

The people can also just switch platforms, well before Twitter there were shadowy forums in Japan where people who wanted to kill themselves in a group could congregate and plan their final exit. I remember as far back as 2003 reading about a group of people(at least 5 IIRC) who found each other using one of these services who all agreed to sit in a car together and inhale exhaust until they died.... Not sure why people in Japan find committing suicide easier if they do it with other people(or in a famous place, I've been to Japan's "suicide forest" and found a skeleton), I guess its less lonely....

What?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

As much as I detest Twitter, I fail to see how this kind of thing is really Twitter's fault or responsibility.

Re:Shut up Dorsey

[Opportunist]

#TwitGolf

Not legal in my country.

At least that's what the cop said after I bashed that twits head in with a sand wedge.

Re:Japanese are so nice

[Opportunist]

It's only funny when it's too soon.

Like: What's the opposite of Christopher Reeve?
Christopher Walken.

See? Not funny anymore. 20 years ago it was a riot! Timing is everything when telling jokes.

The best thing about the internet...

[Oxygen99]

... is that it brings people together. Coincidentally, that's also the worst thing.

Serial Killer or Suicide Service Provider?

[n329619]

Let's put Jack Dorsey on the side. For the japanese guy who did all this, should he even be considered a serial killer? The thing is, it looks like he is doing a service to those people like the right-to-die.

Although this is not a service that makes any sense ( Irony: a lot of Japanese stuff doesn't make any sense) within a moral and civil society where being alive is important, it still does question his initial action of 'is it wrong'. Think about those movies like an injured soldier wanted you to end his life with one last bullet or a sick love one suffering life long pain wishing to end it. It is a difficult moral choose we make as we debate the right and wrong of our choice. But if there's someone else doing it, is he wrong?

If it wasn't for the dismembering (wtf why did he do it), it maybe worth to conduct further investigation on what actually happened, to see whether or not he should be named a serial killer or in fact a suicide service provider.

Re:Serial Killer or Suicide Service Provider?

[Actually, I do RTFA]

There is a reason why even most people who support right to die assisted suicides support a rigorous process of confirming that it's a real, persistent desire. Many suicidal thoughts, and even attempts, are temporary (not that that should discourage people from seeking help if someone is thinking about, threatening or attempted suicide; many are not without help).

This person didn't do that. So, yeah, he's a serial killer.

Re:Serial Killer or Suicide Service Provider?

[DarkOx]

Except European countries are by and large moving forward with euthanasia both for people with other mental illness and children.

Essentially at least within American circles everything conservatives feared would follow from opening the door to assisted suicide is rapidly coming true. Just like here in the states where "safe legal and rare" has turned into "at any stage, for any reason, on demand, and on the tax payer dime" with regard to abortion. Next most of us in the center figured as far as all these 'transsexuals/transgenders' go, hey its free country if adults want to have their junk mocked up to look like that of the other sex whatever. Now prepubescent children are being encouraged to transition, and being given drugs and procedures that will have life long physical consequences if they change their minds, which many are being found to do.

You say this person did not make sure its a real persistent desire. I can tell you the "medical professionals" won't bother asking those question past maybe the first generation of "practitioners". They will quickly move toward utilitarian thinking. "This person is suffering and says they want to die...well gee that is the quickest way to end that suffering...so here swallow this" is how it will start to play out more and more. Nobody will really ask is this person mentally fit to make this choice, what other treatments haven't been tried that might help, etc. Our hospitals and sanitariums will simply turn into slaughter houses.

Impossible you say?

[GameboyRMH]

Jack Dorsey said it is unrealistic and impossible to remove suicidal tweets.

I could probably do it with a grep script, but if you have the resources, some machine learning could be helpful too. You could give users a suicide "heat level" based on the output of the grep script and user reports, and focus the attention of the more resource intensive machine-learning algorithm on the "hottest" users.

Now give me a million dollars for this amazing innovation.

Re:Japanese are so nice

[Hognoxious]

The Japanese are brilliant. Nearly as great as the Chinese. Blacks and Hispanics are pretty good too.

White people are stupid.

If you don't believe me, ask the submitter.