A 48-year-old woman influencer from
Siracusa in Sicily has been cited by postal police for allegedly
instigating suicide by posting a video on TikTok showing a man
and a woman wrapping adhesive tape around their mouths and noses
so they cannot breathe in a so-called Blackout Challenge.
Police said it was "all the more urgent to take action in this
case because the video could have been seen by minors,"
referring to a 10-year-old Palermo girl who choked to death on
her belt last week after taking a Blackout Challenge on TikTok.
In the wake of that case, which caused outrage in Italy, the
country's privacy watchdog already blocked access to TikTok for
users whose age cannot be verified.
On Wednesday the watchdog widened its probe into the case asking
Facebook and Instagram for information on how she had been able
to open accounts on their platforms.
Facebook said it would collaborate fully with the investigation.
In the case of the Siracusa influencer, police said they had
found out that she had posted other challenge videos that had
helped her amass over 730,000 followers of various ages.
They found around 20 videos of dangerous challenges including
inhaling cream through the nose, closing your eyelids with
pincers, and pretending to break an arm with saucepans.
All the challenges were performed by the influencer.
All the videos posted by the woman, who was said to have
children of her own, will be removed, said the head of Tuscany's
postal police, Alessandra Belardini.
"There's a lot of talk about parents being examples, but they
can't be when they are the first to do dangerous things on the
Web," she said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
