Update: Reddit Suicide Lawsuit Is a Hoax

[Soluncreed]

Apparently, "suicide must be proven to have been an involuntary act of the victim in order for the family to be awarded monetary damages by the court." Clearly, by the guy posting that he had intent to commit suicide makes it voluntary. Is it even against the law to tell someone to commit suicide? And also, Reddit labels itself as a free speech community. Does the ability to freely speak allow the users to be at no fault?

Yes, they're dicks, but I don't really think they're at fault. Besides, the man willingly posted on REDDIT that he wanted to kill himself. Any response from it is possible, including encouragement to kill himself.

 

[-|-]

I would right now but I'm not an idiot I fully know what will happen. Not to mention since I still have a military ID it has a lot of my dad's info on it that I don't want posted here. Besides I would be the only one here who would do that making the gesture pointless. I think of the internet as extending myself not putting on a false identity. Everything I say here I would say in real life. Believe me or not it's your choice here but I'm not going to piss my dad off by posting his info along with mine just to prove a worthless point.

This makes you a hypocrite. You say you don't support people being anonymous and then list reasons why your anonymity is somehow special.

Anyway, most of the comments in this thread are stupid. Only one person is responsible for this guy throwing himself off a balcony, no other person is in any way accountable at all.

 

[Hammartroll]

Trolling is a right.

Being an asshole is not a right.

freedom of speech is a right, and it entails being an asshole

No being an asshole is a personal choice and you can choose not to be one. It has nothing to do with the freedom of speech.

It seems you have a different concept of freedom. Where I come from we have freedom of speech because we have freedom of choice, they're one in the same thing, I have the choice to say what I want (barring death threats and screaming fire). Being an asshole has everything to do with freedom of speech. If I can say it, I have the freedom to say it and the government can't stop me.

 

[thomaskattus]

Trolling is a right.

Being an asshole is not a right.

freedom of speech is a right, and it entails being an asshole

No being an asshole is a personal choice and you can choose not to be one. It has nothing to do with the freedom of speech.

It seems you have a different concept of freedom. Where I come from we have freedom of speech because we have freedom of choice, they're one in the same thing, I have the choice to say what I want (barring death threats and screaming fire). Being an asshole has everything to do with freedom of speech. If I can say it, I have the freedom to say it and the government can't stop me.

Just because you have the freedom to be an asshole, does not mean that you should be an asshole. Whatever happened to being a decent human being? Or did your parents not raise you with any sense of right and wrong?

 

[-|-]

Just because you have the freedom to be an asshole, does not mean that you should be an asshole. Whatever happened to being a decent human being? Or did your parents not raise you with any sense of right and wrong?

Of course people shouldn't be dicks, as that makes them, well.... dicks. This doesn't mean being a dick should be a crime though does it.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I know I'm going to sound like an insensitive bastard, but it's his own fault.
He wanted to kill him self, they said go on. He would have done it even without them. And if not, he should have been locked up in a mental facility for being that easy to manipulate.

Also, if I cared every time someone on the internet said he's going to kill him self, I would be already crazy. At least once some idiot will say how he's going to kill him self just to get some attention.

So he's either an attention whore and deserves the hate, or he is really going to kill him self and everything said to him doesn't do shit.

EDIT:
Just to clarify, I don't encourage such behavior. I'm just saying that it's the whole world should burn if those guys are convicted because being an asshole is not a crime.

 

[Aerosteam]

Doesn't "freedom of speech" mean anything anymore?

Of course it does, anyone can say whatever they want.

But when it comes to telling someone to kill himself, and he does, it's different.

If I call you an ignorant bastard, that'll be okay, if you have the right mind.

If I motivate you to shoot yourself when you're considering it, I'm causing real harm to you.

 

[Burst6]

Jesus this is stupid.

You see, there's this thing on the internet. It's called anonymity. When someone posts something, like let's say a suicide letter, you don't really know if it's someone actually suicide or some douche trolling/trying to get attention. Really, most suicidal people aren't insane, they're depressed. I wonder what he expected people on the internet to say. He even returned to post again. Personally i would have ignored a post like this, but some people are just idiots and get lured into these types of threads believing the poster is a troll.


And now everyone is screaming down with the first amendment. The internet is not like anything we have ever seen before. You don't have to read anything on the internet. It's not like school bullying in real life where you HAVE to meet the person every day. He didn't have to go on Reddit, and if he really wanted to he didn't have to start such an inciteful post.

There's no lawsuit here. He wasn't forced to hear anything the people on Reddit were saying, he chose it himself. All of this debacle was his choice. No one on the internet was forcing themselves on him. Hell, according to the OP a good chunk of people were trying to help him out.

Also apparently he has a disabled daughter. He killed himself leaving behind a disabled daughter.

I'm sorry but i don't like the guy.

 

[Risingblade]

They should just delete suicide threads before they flooded with things like things.

 

[rednose1]

No, they should not be held accountable, nor shoud Redditt give up their names.

Sure, what they did was terrible, but it was not a crime. He went to the site with intentions of suicide, they merely helped drive him further to it. I agree that what they did is a pretty cruel thing to do, but they still broke no laws in doing so. It would suck all the same to lose our rights due to well-intentioned reasons as it would to asinine ones.

 

[zehydra]

These people were perhaps directly responsible for him taking his life. Getting Reddit to give up their information is the right thing to do. They definitely do not have to be allowed to be able to hide behind their anonymity.

They weren't responsible for his death, but they WERE responsible for kicking a man while he was down.

 

[tscook]

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/04/reddit-scared-straight-for-encouraging-suicide.html

This is a hoax. People are scum.

 

[zehydra]

Doesn't "freedom of speech" mean anything anymore?

Of course it does, anyone can say whatever they want.

But when it comes to telling someone to kill himself, and he does, it's different.

If I call you an ignorant bastard, that'll be okay, if you have the right mind.

If I motivate you to shoot yourself when you're considering it, I'm causing real harm to you.

but how can you know if somebody's seriously considering what you say? You CAN'T know that online

 

[chadachada123]

I'm calling horseshit.

The tiny number of anonymous people on Reddit didn't contribute to his death. He was almost-definitely already going to do it, 8 guys out of hundreds aren't going to change anything with some empty faceless words. If they are, then frankly, I still wouldn't blame them, since at that point the dude is just acting childish.

 

[Hammartroll]

Trolling is a right.

Being an asshole is not a right.

freedom of speech is a right, and it entails being an asshole

No being an asshole is a personal choice and you can choose not to be one. It has nothing to do with the freedom of speech.

It seems you have a different concept of freedom. Where I come from we have freedom of speech because we have freedom of choice, they're one in the same thing, I have the choice to say what I want (barring death threats and screaming fire). Being an asshole has everything to do with freedom of speech. If I can say it, I have the freedom to say it and the government can't stop me.

Just because you have the freedom to be an asshole, does not mean that you should be an asshole. Whatever happened to being a decent human being? Or did your parents not raise you with any sense of right and wrong?

I act like a decent human being to others because I want them to treat me the same, not because I fear legal repercussion otherwise. Indeed my parents did teach me well, which is why I don't need the government to tell me how to act and I don't need them to protect me either because I actually understand that assholes can't bother me if I don't let them (i.e ignore them)

 

[Aerosteam]

Doesn't "freedom of speech" mean anything anymore?

Of course it does, anyone can say whatever they want.

But when it comes to telling someone to kill himself, and he does, it's different.

If I call you an ignorant bastard, that'll be okay, if you have the right mind.

If I motivate you to shoot yourself when you're considering it, I'm causing real harm to you.

but how can you know if somebody's seriously considering what you say? You CAN'T know that online

No, not for sure.

If someone says he's going to kill himself, you really shouldn't tell them to go do it anyway.

So, if I told someone to jump from the 8th floor of a building, either:

1. That guy is lying and won't consider it, nothing happens.
2. That guy is serious and will consider it, I just helped in the death of someone.

Seriously, why would you tell someone to off himself, hmm? Hmm!?

 

[Balobo]

Reddit is a piece of shit and has the worst community ever

but this isn't why.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

I thought this crap was exclusive to Youtube and 4chan.

Anywhere with anonymity would likely host this kind of bile. I remember being in a TeamSpeak channel where the exact same thing was happening, only with active voices.

Even the Escapist might have been host to people like this, luckily they are very thorough in enforcing forum etiquette so it's not even close to being an issue.