A teenager has taken her own life after majority of her followers Instagram voted for her to die, Igbere TV has learnt.
Igbere TV gathered that the Malaysian teenager had taken to her Instagram page to ask followers if she should die or live.
“Really Important, Help Me Choose D/L,” the 16-year-old girl asked her followers.
Police Chief, Aidil Bolhassan said she was found dead at the bottom of a building in the city of Kuching, on the island of Borneo.
According to him, the “D” stood for “death” while “L” stood for “life”.
“As many as 69 per cent of the teenager’s Instagram friends had supported the decision for her to kill herself via a voting poll,” he said.
He said she appeared to have jumped to her death from the third floor of a shopping centre.
“We are conducting a post-mortem to determine whether there were other factors in her death,” he said, adding that the girl had a history of depression.
Ramkarpal Singh, a lawyer and member of parliament, said that those who voted for the teenager to die could be guilty of abetting suicide.
“Would the girl still be alive today if the majority of citizens on her Instagram account discouraged her from taking her own life? Would she have heeded the advice of citizens to seek professional help had they done so?”
Igbere TV gathered that under Malaysian law, anyone convicted of abetting the suicide of a minor could face the death penalty or up to 20 years in jail.
Saddiq Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s Youth and Sports minister, also called for an investigation into the girl’s death and highlighted the need for national-level discussions about mental health in the country.
“It is very unfortunate a young life was lost in this manner,” he said.
Police do not believe anybody else was involved in the teenager’s death.
Our correspondent reports that her body has been taken to the Sarawak General Hospital, Forensic Department for a postmortem.
Igbere TV recalls that in February, Instagram announced that it would add “sensitivity screens” to block images that promote self-harm or suicide.
The screens will blur the image behind them until the user explicitly indicates they want to view the graphic content.
The move came in the wake of the death of British teenager Molly Russell, whose parents said she took her own life at the age of 14 after looking at self-harm posts on Instagram.
