When Algorithms Promote Self-Harm, Who Is Held Responsible?

Things went a little different when these questions came to the US. Conrad Roy, an 18-year-old in Massachusetts, took his own life. His phone showed that he had been talking to his long-distance girlfriend, who was pushing him to kill himself. Carter was sentenced to 11 months in jail for his role in Roy's death.

Mark Tunick is a political theorist at Florida Atlantic University. In Texting, Suicide, and the Law, Tunick states that the two categories of manslaughter in Massachusetts did not apply to Carter. The teen didn't have a responsibility to protect Roy like a parent or doctor would. The court was unable to prove that Carter was responsible for Roy's death.

Legal theorists were more or less in agreement. The question of cause is often determined by the "but-for" test in US courts. Because suicide is seen as a voluntary act of an individual, courts usually consider any other chain of causality broken in those final moments. The real "but for" were Roy's actions, even though Carter could have sent all the texts she wanted.

Personal responsibility for suicide is complicated by the power of social media. A social epidemiologist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute says suicide is a social disorder for the most part. Methods and rationales are not always the same. There seems to be a correlation between economic factors and suicide rates. Doctors and scientists are trying to figure out how social media can be used to spread harmful ideas.

Epidemiologists have shown that exposure to suicide raises a person's risk of suicidal thoughts or actions. It feels counter productive to blame the individual.

Researchers don't know how these ideas will spread. The methods available to researchers are part of the problem.

There are suicides that cluster between close ties, like those formed among inmates, high school students, and Native American youths. Abrutyn conducts in-depth interviews with people who are still alive to understand if and how one suicide in the community triggered other suicides. People who die by suicide seem to teach those around them a new way to think about their distress, like learning to play chess or smoking.