Instagram polls are fun to use. For instance, you could ask your followers to decide certain things for you. What to wear, what to eat, and even whether or not you should take a shower. In other words, Instagram polls are almost always used for innocent matters.
However, we recently learned that a 16-year-old girl ended her life after posting an Instagram poll where she asked her followers to decide whether or not she should live. Tragically, 69% of people voted negatively.
Shortly after checking the results, the Malaysian teenager took her own life. The message on the poll read the following: “Really Important, Help Me Choose D/L”. The tragic incident has led a lawyer to suggest that the people who voted negatively could actually be prosecuted.
We can only think that most of these users were just trolls. But, in the end, their actions caused a person to lose their life.
The First Incident
Unfortunately, this is the second time a person has committed suicide while using Instagram. The photo-sharing platform has been linked indirectly to another teenage girl ending her life back in 2017. You see, a couple of years ago, 14-year-old Molly Russell decided to take her own life.
But, here’s the thing. When her parents went through her Instagram account, they found distressing material about depression and suicide. Evidently, this led Mr. and Mrs. Russell to partially blame Instagram for the tragic death of their daughter.
Anti Suicide Campaign
In the face of the events that took place in both 2017 and 2019, Instagram helped to co-launch a campaign to provide support to all of the people battling depression. The campaign seeks to raise awareness and let people know that they are not alone. (Click here to learn more about the campaign)
Moreover, Instagram has also begun to remove content that promotes or glorifies self-harm or suicide.
Final Thoughts
We are sad to hear the tragic ending of two girls that had a whole future in front of them. We can only hope that the recent events serve as a wake-up call for Instagram executives, and that they do more to try to prevent these sort of things happening.
So far, there is a campaign dedicated to help people with suicidal thoughts. And even though it doesn’t sound like much, we are sure it does actually serve as a way to provide support to the people who need it.
Hopefully Instagram will soon make some changes, and release new features designed to aid people battling depression.
