Streamer Commits Suicide on Live Video by Drinking Pesticide....
Source:OT-Team(S,J),Hangzhou Daily, Beijing Youth
Sun Fanbao, the live-stream influencer, who was also known as "Guan Guan", is from Pingyi County, Shandong Province. He started the long trip to Tibet by tractor alone in 2021, in order to distract himself from the failure of starting some business and “get some fresh air”. He installed a camera on the tractor to record the scenery and meanwhile made live-stream on the video platform, which went viral later.
The 4000km trip was expected to take him 2 month, Sun told that he was encouraged a lot by the support and help of the followers. “Nowhere is far away, and when you set off, you are on the way to make dreams come true.”He made the post when he departed on June 18, 2021.
On February 11, the day that Sun committed suicide, he posted multiple videos about himself being abused online. He claimed that during the period of doing business with others, some people spread rumor and defamatory information of him through multiple accounts on the Internet. In the last video, Sun also released information of a netizen, saying that: "This person organized and led ten groups of people who kept cyber-bullying me for half a year." ” According to the messages he shared, someone was provoking by telling him that :“You are only considered as a man if you throw yourself under a train” .
On February 15, Sun's wife announced his death on the live-stream platform, saying that Sun had suffered online violence, insults and provocations for more than half a year, and committed suicide by drinking pesticides during the live-stream on the evening of February 11. He died on February 14 as the rescue was ineffective, leaving behind two elderly parents, who are in their 60s, and a 3-month-old infant.
The wife told reporters of Beijing Youth that，the cyberbullies constantly slandered and provoked her husband, "They said that we are liars, we cheat followers for money, or we get samples from suppliers by lying. As long as we started a live-stream, they would report and make troubles, to prevent us selling our products when doing the live-stream." The wife told that, the cyberbullies also forwarded their videos with insulting and defamatory words on them. "They also contacted our suppliers, spread rumors, and said bad words on our characters, resulting in the failure of cooperation. No matter what we did, they came to make trouble, we had to suspend the live-stream for half a year. When we resumed after the Spring Festival, they attacked us online again.”
The wife told that, her husband was a positive person in nature, and she also persuaded him to ignore those who bullied him. Before the incident, her husband went to Xuzhou, where a cyberbully was from, and wanted to have a talk face to face, but it didn’t work out. The wife also told Sun that, they may consider about switching to another platform in the future, and Sun already agreed. But the tragedy still happened.
Sun posted videos in his Douyin account as well, with screenshots of the attacking information he had received, saying that he had been slandered by malicious rumors and got severe depression since end of last year, he had no choice but to "choose a way with no return."
On the afternoon of February 17, The wife made a statement on the case of "death of Sun after being cyber-bullied", in which she provided more detailed information.
It was mentioned that, in the past six months, Sun had suffered attack by many cyberbullies, they published insulting, defamatory and offensive messages through videos, comments, etc.
"The long-time cyber-bullying not only seriously affected the life and work of my husband, but also brought great trouble to our family members, and eventually led to Sun’s death in the extreme way of committing suicide. And Sun just wanted to find the people who cyber-bullied him and re-gain his dignity." She told.