Remove ‘Blue Whale’ links: Govt to social sites

New Delhi, August 16

The Centre today warned of action against internet-based social media platforms if they failed to remove links to the deadly ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ game that is suspected to be behind some of the suicides in Kerala and elsewhere in the country.

‘Blue Whale’ is a controversial internet game in which a series of tasks, mostly brutal, are given to players for a period of 50 days by the administrators with a final challenge requiring them to commit suicide. The player is asked to share photos after finishing the different levels of the game. The game is spread via links on social media platforms.

“People are committing suicide due to Blue Whale game. We received many complaints including from the concerned departments,” Law and Information Technology (IT) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters in Delhi.

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“Clear instructions have been issued to all the technology platforms that they must delink this game immediately because under the Indian IT ecosystem no initiative shall be permitted which provokes young boys to commit suicide. This is plainly unacceptable," he added.

The government on August 11 had directed internet majors — Google, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo — to immediately remove the links to dangerous online game Blue Whale Challenge, which has led to some cases of suicide of children in India and other countries.

“I appeal all the platforms to abide by the direction which the IT ministry has given. It is important and the violation will be viewed very seriously," Prasad said.

Expressing concern over the availability of such deadly game on the internet, the IT ministry said, "it is understood that an administrator of the game uses social media platform to invite /incite children to play this game, which may eventually lead them to take extreme steps for self-inflicting injuries including suicide".

The ministry said the proponent of Blue Whale Challenge should be reported to law enforcement agencies.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hailed the Centre's decision to regulate the 'Blue Whale Challenge' game and urged people to alert authorities about the existence of related links and hashtags in cyber space. — TNS & PTI

Comply or face action, warns Prasad

People are committing suicide due to ‘Blue Whale’ game... abide by the direction which the IT ministry has given. The violation will be viewed very seriously. — Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Law and Information Technology Minister

Game-related suicide suspected in Kerala

Another suspected case of suicide due to the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ has emerged in Kerala even as the police are yet to confirm if the recent suicides are linked to the cyber game. The family of Sawant, 22, who ended his life by hanging himself  last month, on Wednesday said he used to watch horror films on his laptop and had slashed his wrists.