The Blue Whale; the deadly game encouraging people to commit suicide

We see games as a source of entertainment, a thing we do to take our minds off of the everyday stress. However, this newly trending ‘game’ has altered the meaning of games by forcing people to commit suicide.

The game named ‘Blue Whale’ also known as ‘Blue Whale Challenge’ is run by an online social media group that urges people to take their lives. The game was initially originated from Russia back in 2013 by Philip Budekin, a 21-year-old Russian. However, Budekin has now been arrested by police for provoking people to commit suicide via his game challenges.

Becoming popular in recent times, the game is a 50-day game that contains various challenges. The participants get one task per day from an anonymous administrator which they are forced to complete. At the beginning the tasks are simple like not talking to anyone for a day, watch scary videos, waking up at 4:20a.m or listening to a certain genre of music. However, the tasks get scarier by time like asking people to carve out phrases and shapes on their own skin or self-mutilation. The participants should send videos or photos as proof that they completed the task. The last task includes the administrator asking a person to kill himself.

The game led to numerous suicides. A Russian newspaper reported, “This game is responsible for 130 suicides (globally) that took place between November 2015 to April 2016.” Police all over the world warned parent to look after their children as the death game took lives of many teenagers, says Tech Juice.

Furthermore, when Budekin was questioned about the motive behind creating the game, he answered that he intended to clean the society and all the victims are “biological waste”.

The game is not a downloadable application, it’s a social media phenomenon like the Ice Bucket Challenge or the Harlem Shake that contains hashtags as signals for curators like #bluewhalechallenge, #curatorfindme or #i_am_whale. Its other name include ‘A Silent House’, ‘A Sea of Whales’, ‘F57’ or ‘F-57’.

The Times of India reported the first case of death because of the game was in India on August 1, 2017 when a 14-year-old boy jumped off his terrace in Mumbai.

The governments of various countries have ordered top internet platforms like Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, Microsoft and Yahoo to take immediate action for taking down links leading to the deadly game.