Overview

Ronnie McNutt's Facebook Live Suicide refers to a Facebook livestream recorded by 33-year-old Army veteran Ronnie McNutt in which he took his own life. According to news reports, the video widely circulated on TikTok and was edited into various clips presented on the "For You" page for some users.

Background

On August 31st, 2020, McNutt committed suicide while streaming on Facebook Live. Immediately prior to the video, McNutt shared the following message on his Facebook feed:

Someone in your life needs to hear that they matter. That they are loved. That they have a future. Be the one to tell them.

Developments

On September 3rd, Brazilian YouTuber CF KING uploaded a video discussing the suicide, which gathered upwards of 313,000 views over the next week (shown below).

TikTok Circulation

On September 7th, The Verge^[1] reported that the TikTok platform was being inundated with clips from the suicide video and that the company was "racing to stop the spread."

On September 8th, The Daily Dot published a statement from TikTok addressing the controversy:

"Our systems, together with our moderation teams, have been detecting and removing these clips for violating our policies against content that displays, praises, glorifies, or promotes suicide."

News Media Coverage

Articles about the suicide were published on a number of news sites, including Business Insider,^[3] Heavy^[4] and New York Post.^[5]

Search Interest

External References