Huntsville man linked to online forum blamed for hundreds of suicides around the world

Huntsville man linked to online forum blamed for hundreds of suicides around the world

A Huntsville man is drawing attention after an online suicide discussion forum linked to him has been blocked by several web providers in the United Kingdom.

Lamarcus Small, 29, was identified in 2021 by The New York Times as the co-creator of the website, which has been linked to at least 50 suicides in the U.K. alone, and hundreds worldwide.

The other creator, identified as Diego Joaquín Galante, reportedly lives in Uruguay.

The online forum, which gets nearly 10 million views per month, provides users with explicit directions on how to commit suicide, sometimes with poisons, while other users post encouraging messages and praise for those ending their lives.

The site hosts public forums, live chats, and private messaging around suicide, and includes goodbye posts and real-time suicide attempts.

Galante and Small operated the site for years as a “pro-choice” forum supporting members’ decisions to live or die. It has about 40,000 members worldwide.

Small reportedly described the site as “a place where people can freely speak about their issues without having to worry about being ‘saved’ or giving empty platitudes.”

Both Galante and Small have described themselves as “incels” – involuntarily celibate.

“People are responsible for their own actions at the end of the day,” Small was quoted as stated on the site. “There’s not much we can do about that.”

Following The New York Times investigation, the two announced that they had handed over the site to new administrators with similar beliefs.

According to a report this week by BBC News, Sky Broadband, the U.K.’s second biggest Internet service provider, added the site to a list of websites blocked by its safety filter, which is automatically activated on home routers.

TalkTalk, with about four million users, is also blocking it with its safety filter activated.

The Daily Mail earlier this week reported that Britain’s Conservative government recently gave the country’s TV and tech regulator Ofcom the power to block such websites, and levy millions of dollars in fines under a law called the Online Safety Act.

A similar bill was proposed in Congress last year.

A post on the site, in response to the Online Safety Act, stated, “we can’t give any less of a damn.”

“Rather than take care of the failing NHS or actually helping those that fall through the cracks of the system, Ofcom and UK government regulators would rather block this community then to fix their broken institutions. This is how much your government cares about you,” the post stated.

The Daily Mail confronted a man in Huntsville it identified as Small in the parking lot of a Huntsville credit union in October. He declined to answer any questions.

Small also refused to answer questions on camera from the BBC as well.

Efforts to reach Small for comment by AL.com were not immediately successful.

If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, reach out to the 24–hour National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255; contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741; or chat with someone online at suicidepreventionlifeline.org. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours.