Lawmakers Urge Big Tech to ‘Mitigate Harm’ of Suicide Site and Seek Justice Inquiry

Dec 22, 2021
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Households of those that frolicked on the web site and discovered methods to die have lengthy sought accountability from tech corporations that lead individuals to the location, together with engines like google. The positioning attracts six million web page views a month, and practically half of all site visitors is pushed by on-line searches, in accordance with information from Similarweb, an internet analytics firm.

A consultant for Microsoft stated that in response to The Occasions’s investigation, the corporate had “taken motion according to our insurance policies” and “addressed the rating related to this web site in our outcomes,” making the location rank decrease for many associated searches.

Citing The Occasions’s reporting, Mr. Blumenthal wrote in his letter, addressed to Google’s chief government, Sundar Pichai, that the content material on the suicide web site “makes the world a darkish place for too many,” and that Google had the power and authorized authority to steer “people who find themselves struggling away from this harmful web site.”

“Google’s fingers will not be tied, and it has a accountability to behave,” he wrote.

In an electronic mail to The Occasions, Lara Levin, a spokeswoman for Google, declined to touch upon the investigation or the senator’s letter.

Mr. Blumenthal made the identical case in his letter to Microsoft, writing to the corporate’s chief government, Satya Nadella, and its president, Brad Smith. The Microsoft consultant declined to make any further remark.

The operators of the suicide web site have lengthy used Cloudflare, an American agency that gives cyberprotections, to obscure the names of its internet host, making it tough or inconceivable to know what firm is offering these providers.

In 2019, Cloudflare was notified of the risks of the suicide web site by Australian authorities officers. The subsequent yr, mother and father whose youngsters had died whereas taking part within the web site requested Matthew Prince, Cloudflare’s chief government, to cease offering its providers to the location, however he didn’t reply. Cloudflare declined to reply to a request for remark for this text.

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Supply- nytimes