Are TikTok algorithms changing how people talk about suicide?

Even though she uses the platform to discuss mental health issues with her 80,000 followers, she has never said the word suicide on TikTok. Since the beginning of the Pandemic, a student from England has posted videos about her stay in a mental health ward. Some of the clips are more serious than others. Williams doesn't use the word suicide to her camera or in her caption because she is afraid the TikTok algorithm will remove her content. She uses the wordunalive instead.

The #unalivemeplease has 9.2 million views on TikTok; the #unaliving has 6.6 million views; and the #unaliveawareness has 2.2 million views. If you search for the words #suicide and #suicideawareness, you will not find them on the app. A year after a graphic video of a suicide spread across the app, it was initiated in September 2021. Users fear elusive moderation filters that seem to suppress or remove videos about death, suicide, or self-destructive behavior.

The term "unalive" first appeared in an episode of Ultimate Spider-Man in the summer of 2013, but searches for the term have spiked in the years since. unalive is from TikTok and has spread to other websites. The word can be used to refer to suicide, murder, or death. Williams uses unalive to talk candidly, forge a community, and signpost resources on the app. The rapid rise of unalive raises a worrying question: what happens when we don't say it?

Williams says that the term makes a joke out of a serious subject. She likes to say "unalive" when she wants to make videos, but it doesn't sit right with her.

The word "unalive" could make people think of suicide. She swaps out other mental health terminology so her videos aren't flagged for review.

Prianka is a clinical academic in Psychiatry at the University of Bristol and she conducted a study on language use and suicide in 2019. The participants were asked to rate the acceptability of the descriptors on the topic and it was found that the participants took their own lives.

A number of those surveyed raised concerns about the complete avoidance of the word suicide. I don't think we should be afraid of using the word.

Respondents indicated a preference for terms that were perceived to be factual, clear, descriptive, commonly used, non-emotive, non-stigmatizing, and validation. She notes that words can and do affect the way we think about suicide, and that further research is needed to determine if unalive could potentially be stigmatizing.