SATNA: Instagram’s policy helped Madhya Pradesh police avert a potential suicide on Thursday. The police state to have received a ‘self-harm’ alert from social networking app.
As per the preliminary investigation, a 17-year-old girl was allegedly considering suicide and posted self-harm content on Instagram which triggered the automated feature of Instagram to alert security forces which helped them trace her location. The IP address shared by the cyber unit traced the user to be in Satna district following which the district and local police personnel were alerted.
“We located the girl and called her over, along with mother. She told us that she only wanted to scare her boyfriend as he was not talking to her for five days. She was sent home after a session of counseling,” said Satna Superintendent of Police Ashutosh Gupta interacting with the media reporters.
Instagram has a policy of not allowing users to share suicidal or self-harming content on its platform. In case of an attempt made the platform immediately raises an alert. The feature was updated in 2019 February. “We will not allow any graphic images of self-harm, such as cutting on Instagram – even if it would previously have been allowed as admission. We have never allowed posts that promote or encourage suicide or self-harm, and will continue to remove it when reported,” the social media app said at that time.