Twitter joins India’s NIMHANS to help prevent suicides

• When someone searches for terms associated with suicide or self-harm, the top search result is a notification encouraging them to reach out for help.

Bengaluru: Twitter has launched a dedicated search prompt #ThereIsHelp and says it is working with over 20 different organisations across the world, including the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) in India, to help raise awareness on suicide prevention.

The announcement comes on the day of World Suicide Prevention Day and says anyone who searches for related terms will be led to credible information around suicide prevention helplines.

Twitter also launched a custom emoji in the shape of an orange ribbon – the international symbol for World Suicide Prevention Day, which will appear when people Tweet with the hashtags #WorldSuicidePreventionDay, #WSPD, #WSPD2020 and #SuicidePrevention. The campaign is activated in 23 languages and will run through September 25.

Twitter has been working with the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) for the past three years and with several nonprofit partners worldwide in an effort to offer Ads for Good grants and amplify their local campaigns on Twitter. 

These partners are leading suicide prevention and mental health awareness in markets across the Asia Pacific, US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, and Africa.

NIMHANS has been running several campaigns towards raising awareness and help prevent suicides among the Indians.

“This year we expanded the prompts to several new markets in consultation with local mental health partners to ensure that we are sharing the latest and most helpful resources in our #ThereisHelp prompts across the globe.

#ThereIsHelp is available for people in the US, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the UK.

Facebook has been running its own campaigns towards preventing suicides and in 2017 announced that it is incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning into its suicide prevention tools to help flag posts from potential victims. 

“This tool uses signals to identify posts from people who might be at risk, such as phrases in posts and concerned comments from friends and family,” Facebook said in a post explaining about how AI works towards helping the cause. 

Last year it said it has tightened its “policy around self-harm both on Facebook and Instagram, “to no longer allow graphic cutting images to avoid unintentionally promoting or triggering self-harm, even when someone is seeking support or expressing themselves to aid their recovery.”