NPR reports on new tools developed by Facebook to help prevent suicide. Those considering suicide often reach out to friends or family through social media. To help, Facebook is creating measures to better connect people in the hopes of preventing suicides, but the tools are also raising some privacy concerns. Other social media companies employ similar services, but there was so much backlash over one released by Twitter last year that the social network shuttered the service within a week. Reddit has a SuicideWatch forum, but in one case, a user was hospitalized against his will following a post that included suicidal thoughts. Psychologist Sally Spencer-Thomas said she does not see any privacy concerns with Facebook’s new tool.
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