Facebook has decided to try and prevent suicides. From the San Francisco Chronicle story:
When people write about harming themselves on Facebook, their friends can ask Facebook to review the post because it’s “hurtful, threatening or suicidal.”
A team of Facebook employees from America, Dublin or India will take a look at the flagged post to determine whether it is troubling, and then essentially lock the user out from their account until they review options related to suicide prevention.
Those include suicide prevention materials, links to contact Facebook friends or a suicide-prevention hotline.
I can see it now: “But I have cancer!,” the suicidal person responds.
“Oh, never mind,” Facebook replies, having received training from the Hemlock Society Compassion and Choices. “Carry on.”