In a move to restrict the drastic impact of harmful online content, tech conglomerates including Facebook, Snapchat and Google have reportedly joined hands with UK-based charity organization Samaritans, in a new government-aided project.

For the uninitiated, Samaritans, founded in 1953, is a UK based charity aimed at suicide prevention and providing emotional support to the depressed, throughout the UK and Ireland. 

As per reliable sources, the new strategy forms an integral part of a combined cross-government endeavor to restrain several social media companies in the wake of rising concerns over harmful online content prevalent across areas such as child abuse, suicide, self-harm and terrorism.

Ruth Sutherland, the Chief Executive at the Samaritans, was quoted stating that the new partnership marks a collaborative commitment towards learning more about the concerned issues, gain knowledge by way of research & insights from users, and eventually implement the changes that help save numerous lives. Ruth went on to add that there is no black & white solution that can safeguard the public from content based on suicide and self-harm, since these are some specific, complicated issues.

As per sources familiar with the knowledge of the matter, ministers, in a new White Paper, proposed to create a new independent regulatory body and further establish a statutory duty of care for every social media firm that has the senior executives held personally liable.

For the record, Instagram, the renowned photo and video sharing social networking platform owned by Facebook, was recently accused of acting as a channel in the suicide case of 17 years old, Molly Russell. Reportedly, the victim’s father had claimed that the daughter was almost successful in killing herself after being influenced by self-harm images on social media. Instagram subsequently had to take out all graphic images based on self-harm.

Source Credits: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/29/samaritans-set-to-work-with-facebook-and-google-on-limiting-online-harm?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other