Odisha police to remove Blue Whale game from social media

Odisha police has asked all district police authorities to remove from social media the ‘Blue Whale Challenge’, an online game which allegedly claimed several lives of children in the country.

“You are requested to take steps to ensure that such links of the deadly game in its own name or any similar game is immediately removed from the social media platform," Odisha DGP K B Singh said in an official note to senior officers.

In his directive, Singh told all SPs in the state to keep a watch on various social media outlets and ensure that the suicide game was not available to the users in the state. Singh said this order should be carried out with immediate effect taking into account the urgency of the issue. 

“It is understood that an administrator of the game uses social media platform to invite children to play these game, which may eventually have led to the extreme step for self-inflicting injuries including suicide,” the DGP said.

Recently, a Class X girl in Sambalpur was found hanging from a fan in her room. The girl died at the hospital later. Though the local police were probing the causes of the girl’s death, her parents linked the death to ‘Blue Whale Challenge’. Sambalpur SP Sanjeev Arora has, however, already ruled out the Blue Whale game angle in the incident. 

Notably, the Blue Whale Challenge is reportedly a suicide game in which the player is given certain tasks to complete for a period of 50 days and the final task leads to the player committing suicide. The player is also asked to share photos after finishing each challenge. 

The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the central government, Facebook, Google and Yahoo on a plea seeking direction to the internet majors to take down the links of the Blue Whale game.