Army Veteran's Suicide Video Started Petitions for Social Media Reform

In early September 2020, a troubling story circulated online that a U.S Army veteran, Ronnie McNutt, committed suicide on Facebook Live, the livestream service of the social media platform.

Suicide on Facebook live

Sadly, the story is true. The local police and McNutt's friend, Josh Steen said that McNutt, a 33-year-old veteran, took his own life on August 31, 2020, while streaming live on Facebook from his home in New Albany, Mississipi.

The U.S Army also confirmed that McNutt was a veteran who served in the Iraq War from June 2007 to March 2008. But his death and the way that the incident was handled by Facebook has garnered massive criticism from Steen, who has launched #ReformforRonnie.

The campaign is made to hold social media companies accountable for spreading misinformation, violence and hate, and the campaign demands that social media platforms accept responsibility for content posted to their platforms, and efficiently and evenly enforce strict terms of service.

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In a statement sent out to the news media, Facebook stated that they had removed the original video from the platform last month on the day it was streamed and have used automation technology to remove copies and uploads since the incident.

However, Steen who witnessed McNutt's suicide through Facebook Live, told Snopes that the statement of the social media company is dishonest.

Steen said that McNutt's original video remained on Facebook for roughly seven hours after his friend shot himself in the head, giving it enough time to be seen, copied and redistributed to other social media sites.

Also, Steen said that he flagged the livestream while McNutt was still alive, only to receive notification almost two hours later, after McNutt took his life, stating that the video did not violate Facebook's terms. A screenshot was provided by Steen as evidence.

Copied and redistributed

Since the video stayed up for hours, numerous people were able to copy and repost it to other social media platforms, including Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

Because of this, hundreds of parents reported that their children had accidentally seen it, and issued warnings to other parents to keep their children off of TikTok.

A spokesman for TikTok said that the video began appearing on the platform on September 6 and that TikTok has been banning accounts that upload the video.

However, Steen said that the efforts of the social media platforms are too slow, despite them knowing that they have a young audience that needs to be protected.

Steen also said that viral posts about McNutt's death spread misinformation, along with violent imagery. It's misinformation that Steen believes made the story sensational, thus boosting its spread online.

Fake posts are claiming that McNutt lost his job, leading to him committing suicide. Steen said that it was not true and was made to further the narrative because it paints McNutt more pathetically.

There were also posts claiming that McNutt used a shotgun to shoot himself with, but Steen said it was not true either, since according to Steen, McNutt owned a "cheap, run-of-the-mill, single-shot rifle."

Violence on Facebook

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the company failed to take down a so-called militia Facebook group called "Kenosha Guard" that issued a call to arms in Kenosha, Wisconsin, according to Buzzfeed.

Kenosha is where protesters had taken their dismay to the streets after police shot Jacob Blake, paralyzing him from the waist down.

The group is still on the platform, even though it violated Facebook's rules, and numerous people already reported the page. Also, a terrorist used Facebook Live to livestream his massacre of 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in March 2019.

Facebook said they are now re-examining their reporting logic and experiences for both live and recently live videos to expand the categories that would get to accelerated review.