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Comment by remram | Hacker News Reader

Suicide is not "sudden death", wtf.

I don't understand what would make them use another word like that? Is "suicide" bad for SEO or something?

I’m not sure how it is in America, but in Australia there are standards followed when reporting on suicide. So perhaps this is a similar practice.

https://www.presscouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/S...

There is a correlation between media reporting on suicides and suicides in the area, likely due copycats of people on the precipice. Obviously we also cannot stop reporting on the topic totally, so this is the balance, also why you find suicide helplines alongside such articles.

Reading this halfway around the globe I wonder what local area they are referring to? The globe?

I think the effect was noted/studied before Internet so as to separate it from broader country or global trends

By all accounts he did die suddenly. Whether it was suicide is for a coroner to determine. I think that's the reason for the seemingly obtuse language. Edit - The article does mention a death certificate confirming suicide, so you're right - the wording is a bit odd.

The first paragraph of TFA:

> The week before Thanksgiving, Marshall Brain sent a final email to his colleagues at North Carolina State University. "I have just been through one of the most demoralizing, depressing, humiliating, unjust processes possible with the university," wrote the founder of HowStuffWorks.com and director of NC State's Engineering Entrepreneurs Program. Hours later, campus police found that Brain had died by suicide.

The headline is admittedly a bit weird.

>Is "suicide" bad for SEO or something?

Youtube for example will outright demonetize your video if you mention suicide. That's their official policy as stated https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802245?hl=en&ref_... . It's stupid as fuck.

As the GameGrumps team (very progressive people) mockingly stated: "It's so easy to solve the problem when we can't talk about it"

It is usually taken as a given that TikTok will just not surface your content if you say suicide, but I'm not active on tiktok and have no source.

Like all these absurd restrictions on content, it is not driven by liberals, or policy, or law. It is entirely driven by the fact that Coke does not want to pay for the ad space next a video talking about a difficult subject.

It's the free market baby.

Imagine it came with dozens of downvotes on every social platform. Certainly all current events channels on YouTube avoid it religiously. I assume they have reason.

It’s a common euphemism. The article text clarifies that he died by suicide. What’s the problem?

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