After backlash, suicide prevention charity pulls app

Would you be OK with having someone monitor your tweets for signs of suicidal thoughts?

As it turns out, many people were absolutely not OK with it in the case of the Samaritans Radar app. The U.K suicide prevention charity Samaritans launched the app in late October with the goal of identifying problematic words and phrases in tweets and reporting its findings back to concerned users.

On Friday, the organization deactivated all Samaritans Radar user accounts and shut down the app. It also issued a statement that read, in part:

Samaritans has a long history of encouraging people to look out for one another and of finding innovative ways of encouraging people to talk about what is troubling them. However, we need to think further about how we can take those principles and use them to help make the online environment safer for vulnerable people.