The Assam police on Monday rescued a minor who had posted her intention to ‘commit suicide’ on the social media platform. Police said they could manage to save the girl within 30 minutes after being alerted by Facebook.
“The CID Special Branch DGP got a call from US-based headquartered Facebook that one girl from Assam had written a post stating “I am gonna commit suicide today.” We immediately got into action, traced the user and visited her home. We talked with her family and did counselling. She deleted her post, and is safe now,” said Harmeet Singh, Additional Director General of Police.
Singh added that Assam police have initiated a ‘positive engagement’ with public and have launched various social media awareness campaigns.
“People have a wrong perception that we are monitoring their social media posts. Rather, it’s a positive engagement with public. One of such endeavors is our ‘The Think Campaign’. The results have been quite positive. Even celebrities are retweeting/sharing our posts. In the official Facebook page of Assam Police, you will come across dialogues between users on how social media should be used positively.”
Facebook has been scouring all posts on patterns of suicidal thoughts using artificial intelligence technology and human moderators to send help. Assam police can take take pride in the fact that they could deal with such a case, and save a minor from taking the extreme step.
"Whatever we are working upon, even Facebook Headquarters know that if they inform us of something happening here, we can do something positive for the society in good time," said Singh.
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