Mr McNutt was a 33-year-old army veteran who had seen active service in Iraq, and subsequently dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental-health issues.
Clips showing his de**ath started going viral the day after his suicide.”The video was public and his account was public. Whoever took the first clip and uploaded it created a back story about Ronnie,” said Mr Steen.”None of it was true.
But it helped fuel the fire to help it spread,” he added.On Mr McNutt’s Facebook page, more and more comments were being posted.
Many were unpleasant and Mr Steen reported them to the social network as haras***sment.But he said Facebook told him nothing could be done because he was not the account holder.
If Facebook had intervened then, my friend may still have committed sui**cide but at least there wouldn’t be this video.”
Now, he is fighting for answers from the firm and other social media platforms where clips of the suicide are widely available.
For the last two and a half weeks Ronnie’s image has been one of the most recognisable on the internet and yet these companies claim to have detection software to stop it, so something isn’t right,” he said.
He reported it to Facebook during the livestream, at 22:00 Mississippi time – two hours after the video had started, and half an hour before Ronnie ki***led himself.
