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So far as I know three suicides are popularly thought to be connected to KiwiFarms. The only one I've looked into at all, the suicide of the emulator developer

So far as I know three suicides are popularly thought to be connected to KiwiFarms. The only one I've looked into at all, the suicide of the emulator developer "near", seems pretty flimsy to me. For one, the KiwiFarms thread on near, prior to his suicide, is pretty tame. There aren't that many comments and the comments that are there aren't so bad - at worst they accuse Near of pedophilia because he likes/defends drawn illustrations of child pornography. Near's real identity is not known so the thread doesn't even stalk him or intrude into his real life. Near emailed KiwiFarms farms asking for the thread to be removed and said he would commit suicide if it wasn't but would pay if the thread was removed. The site owner was researching whether it would be legal to accept money when Near pupportedly killed himself - 12 hours after the initial exchange. It's also not clear that any suicide actually took place. As I mentioned, no real identity is known so there is also no real official confirmation. All of the "confirmation" that appears to exist is an anonymous person on Twitter who is acting on behalf of someone who talked to the Japanese police - and apparently the police confirmed the suicide. A thread on KiwiFarms investigates the idea that Near faked his suicide, showing that Japan's vital statistics, a government page that reports, among other things, the deaths of foreigners in Japan has no corresponding record for Near's death. The KiwiFarms thread also points out that Near had threatened (or maybe pretended to, can't remember) to commit suicide before. There is additional evidence that thread reviews that I've forgotten. I haven't looked into the other two suicides - but from everything I have seen much of what is said of KiwiFarms is overblown. It's true they use racist slurs and say mean things - but the idea that they are some murderous swatting suicide cult seems vastly overblown to me.

viraptor 4y ago
> showing that Japan's vital statistics You believe there is ~1 monthly death of US citizens in Japan? No, those stats are not useful. > All of the "confirmation" that appears to exist is an anonymous person on Twitter And you know... confirmation from Near's friends if you don't ignore them. > The KiwiFarms thread also points out that Near had threatened (or maybe pretended to, can't remember) to commit suicide before And this is just disgusting. If you want to publicly discuss someone's attempted suicide and consider if you can legally take their money to remove that discussion... You've hit the bottom. You need to reconsider your life choices at that point.
- Khaine 4y ago
  Extrodenary claims demand extraordinary proof. Some random person on twitter said that x killed themselves because of site y. X has the burden of proof not Y. So far, Y has done everything to try and disprove X. Yet in every public discussion to date, Y is guilty until proven innocent.
- ALittleLight 4y ago
  1 death by suicide per month of American citizens in Japan is probably high - maybe not if they count the military base. I don't know - I wish I could easily look up their statistics and see what they said - too bad KiwiFarms is not allowed to defend itself against accusations and what they've previously written I'm forbidden to read. Regarding Near's friends - he wrote that he had no friends. None of the people who claim posthumously to have been his friends offered any evidence that any suicide took place. Near, when writing to KiwiFarms, said that right before he killed himself he would send copies of his passport to KiwiFarms so that they would be able to tell he actually did kill himself. Then, in his final message, he decided not to do that. There is no real evidence that Near's suicide actually took place - it's all "This person on Twitter knows Near's friend and they say he killed himself." Maybe that's accurate - but it seems like a low bar for confidence levels if we're going to ban a group from the Internet based on it. Regarding discussing Near's suicide - Near emailed the site owner, Joshua Moon, and made the offer - "I'll pay you 125k to remove the thread or I'll kill myself." Moon replies that he doesn't even know if it would be legal to accept that offer, says that he probably won't and that he would feel guilty about taking Near's money, and the pair discuss it for a few exchanges before Near, apparently, loses patience. Moon also expresses his confusion that Near is upset, because the KiwiFarms thread is about 100 comments in length, none name Near, the thread is not active, and the comments are mostly pretty benign (e.g. "Near must be autistic to spend so much time on emulators).

viraptor 4y ago

> showing that Japan's vital statistics You believe there is ~1 monthly death of US citizens in Japan? No, those stats are not useful. > All of the "confirmation" that appears to exist is an anonymous person on Twitter And you know... confirmation from Near's friends if you don't ignore them. > The KiwiFarms thread also points out that Near had threatened (or maybe pretended to, can't remember) to commit suicide before And this is just disgusting. If you want to publicly discuss someone's attempted suicide and consider if you can legally take their money to remove that discussion... You've hit the bottom. You need to reconsider your life choices at that point.

Khaine 4y ago
Extrodenary claims demand extraordinary proof. Some random person on twitter said that x killed themselves because of site y. X has the burden of proof not Y. So far, Y has done everything to try and disprove X. Yet in every public discussion to date, Y is guilty until proven innocent.
ALittleLight 4y ago
1 death by suicide per month of American citizens in Japan is probably high - maybe not if they count the military base. I don't know - I wish I could easily look up their statistics and see what they said - too bad KiwiFarms is not allowed to defend itself against accusations and what they've previously written I'm forbidden to read. Regarding Near's friends - he wrote that he had no friends. None of the people who claim posthumously to have been his friends offered any evidence that any suicide took place. Near, when writing to KiwiFarms, said that right before he killed himself he would send copies of his passport to KiwiFarms so that they would be able to tell he actually did kill himself. Then, in his final message, he decided not to do that. There is no real evidence that Near's suicide actually took place - it's all "This person on Twitter knows Near's friend and they say he killed himself." Maybe that's accurate - but it seems like a low bar for confidence levels if we're going to ban a group from the Internet based on it. Regarding discussing Near's suicide - Near emailed the site owner, Joshua Moon, and made the offer - "I'll pay you 125k to remove the thread or I'll kill myself." Moon replies that he doesn't even know if it would be legal to accept that offer, says that he probably won't and that he would feel guilty about taking Near's money, and the pair discuss it for a few exchanges before Near, apparently, loses patience. Moon also expresses his confusion that Near is upset, because the KiwiFarms thread is about 100 comments in length, none name Near, the thread is not active, and the comments are mostly pretty benign (e.g. "Near must be autistic to spend so much time on emulators).