Suicide of Ronnie McNutt

Ronnald Merle McNutt (May 23, 1987 – August 31, 2020) was a 33-year-old American man and US Army Reserve veteran from New Albany, Mississippi, who committed suicide by shooting himself under his chin on a Facebook livestream, which went viral on various social media platforms due to its inherent shock value.

The case became notable for both the callous attitude expressed towards McNutt’s death by some Internet users, as well as Facebook's slow response to the video, which had been shared to numerous other platforms and amassed a large view count before finally being taken down, though the video can be still found on various shock websites.

TikTok was also slow to respond to the video, which had appeared in many user feeds and constant re-uploads, leading to many users choosing to boycott the platform.^[1] The case has raised awareness about both suicide prevention and what duty of care social media platforms owe to users and victims' reputations online when it comes to graphic violent content.^[2][3]

McNutt was a resident of New Albany, Mississippi, and had served in the United States Army Reserve, including in Iraq. He worked at a Toyota plant. He had a variety of mental health problems, such as depression as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the latter of which was a direct consequence of his time served in the Iraq War in 2007 and 2008.^[4] In addition to this, he was also dealing with a recent break-up with his girlfriend; some reports also said that he lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic, though Rolling Stone disputed this.^[2] McNutt was a Christian who regularly attended church.^[5][6]

On August 31, 2020, McNutt began a Facebook livestream. His best friend, Joshua Steen, noticed the stream. He did not initially find it unusual as McNutt had routinely done livestreams in the past, but he became alarmed when he realized that McNutt was intoxicated and holding a bolt action rifle.^[2] Steen allegedly attempted to intervene numerous times, particularly when McNutt misfired the rifle, hoping that Facebook would cut off the stream and end the video feed, preventing people from seeing into McNutt's home while Steen sought police intervention. Facebook refused to cut the stream, claiming that the stream was not in any violation of its platform's guidelines, as McNutt had not committed suicide yet.^[7]

As the stream went on, McNutt's mobile phone rang frequently. The last call he received was from his ex-girlfriend, which he answered, leading to a brief argument between the two.^{[citation needed]} After she ended the call, McNutt took hold of the gun and addressed the audience for the final time, saying his last words, "Hey guys, I guess that's it."^{[citation needed]} He then aimed the rifle under his chin and fatally shot himself.^{[citation needed]}

About a second before his suicide, the phone he had left on his desk began to ring.^{[citation needed]} The stream was captured by multiple viewers.^[8]

The New Albany Police Department had been called to the scene during the livestream, but did not enter McNutt's apartment until after they heard the fatal gunshot; his phone was still ringing as officers searched the scene. Police Chief Chris Robertson reported that his officers had secured the perimeter and evacuated nearby residents before attempting to communicate with McNutt via speakerphone, to no avail.^[9]

A final message by McNutt was later discovered on Facebook, saying, "Someone in your life needs to hear that they matter. That they are loved. That they have a future. Be the one to tell them".^[10]

Two days after his suicide, McNutt was buried in Snowdown Church of Christ Cemetery in Prentiss County, Mississippi.^[11]

The video was downloaded and posted online, and the spread of the livestream started. Then the video of McNutt's suicide was posted by users across social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, often as bait-and-switch content.

According to Heavy, Facebook also initially refused to prevent the spread of recorded video of McNutt's misfire and suicide but later agreed to remove the videos from its platform.^[7] McNutt had not expressed any intent for the viral spread to occur. Variants of the video appeared in TikTok's "For You" page, so that users would scroll upon it without warning as the suicide automatically played, with the apparent intention of frightening or upsetting viewers as a form of trolling. The #ronniemcnutt hashtag had 15.6 million views on TikTok within the first few days after the suicide.^[1]

Though the platforms worked to remove the videos, new uploads of it would appear from separate accounts, while links to the video also began to appear in Reddit's true crime communities. As TikTok caught onto the video with its algorithms, uploaders evaded detection by placing the video after pictures of unrelated, innocuous content.^[12][13]

The incident was compared to the filmed suicides of anchorwoman Christine Chubbuck and politician R. Budd Dwyer.^[14] A large margin of the response online was one of sympathy towards McNutt, with users using the case as an opportunity to discuss mental health and suicide prevention, as well as concern over the video's prevalence online. Some TikTok users announced boycotts of the platform until the suicide video was completely taken down, while other users began posting prayers and messages of respect and commemoration for McNutt in the comments sections of the video uploads.^{[1][15][16][17]}

Many parents reported that their children were highly distressed after encountering the video, with one girl becoming physically ill and needing to sleep with the lights on.^[18] Another parent argued that she fears her children, who accidentally discovered the video on TikTok, may have post-traumatic stress disorder.^[19][20] Institute of Mums circulated further warnings for parents about seemingly benign video content hiding the McNutt video, stating, "Alarmingly, there are also reports of the video being sandwiched in the middle of cute and funny cat videos, which begin with viewer-friendly footage before quickly changing to the disturbing suicide."^[21] Then Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the video something that "no child should be exposed to", while cybersecurity expert Susan McLean publicly recommended that parents prevent minor children from accessing the TikTok app until the video was fully removed.^[19]

The case sparked a debate over what legal liability is owed by Internet platforms that fail to promptly remove graphic and disturbing footage from public view, with the blame generally being placed on Facebook for failing to cut off the livestream during the initial suicide attempt itself. Joshua Steen had called Facebook multiple times, and had called the police, neither of which stopped the stream before McNutt committed suicide.^[22][23] Steen declared, "if some woman posts a topless photo, their software will detect that, remove it, and ban their account. That's apparently more offensive than my friend killing himself."^[2] It was argued by the two platforms that the "dark web" was responsible for the ongoing circulation of the video.^[24][25]

TikTok released a public statement saying, "Our systems have been automatically detecting and flagging these clips for violating our policies against content that displays, praises, glorifies, or promotes suicide. We appreciate our community members who've reported content and warned others against watching, engaging or sharing such videos on any platform, out of respect for the person and their family." Facebook, likewise, publicly stated, "We removed the original video from Facebook last month, on the day it was streamed, and have used automation technology to remove copies and uploads since that time. Our thoughts remain with Ronnie's family and friends during this difficult time."^[18]