France has opened an investigation into the suicide of a woman who broadcast her death on the video-streaming app, Periscope.
During a live stream on Periscope, a 19-year-old woman who called Océane, committed suicide by jumping on the train tracks at Égly station, located around 40 kilometres south of the French capital, Paris.
Periscope is a popular social media app, and has has been by its users to broadcast some unsuitable content before, including crimes and violence. But Océane's case is the first that involves death on the platform.
Her case led to a fresh debate in France about how to regulate and protect the country's young users from the effect of social media.
And this is why the French authorities have launched an investigation to investigate Océane's death, in the hopes that it won't ever happen again in the future.
The case began a few days before Océane took her life.
"I’ve seen people die," said Océane, who worked in a retirement home.
Read: Death Of Rooftop Daredevil Wu Yongning, And The Lawsuit To Stop What 'Crowdfunded' His Death
Seated on a couch in her house, the brunette with long wavy hair smoked cigarettes, played with her cat, and showed off some of her tattoos and piercings.
"I don’t understand this mania of always asking people’s nationality. People are always asking: How old are you? What’s your name? Where do you live? What are your origins? People are very very very very stupid around here," Océane asked herself in front of her audience.
Océane's life with her family was not good. She even said that she doesn't want to talk to her father anymore, saying that "he’s a jerk.”
Having two daughters from two different women, Océane’s father ran a popular nightclub where, in addition to the usual DJ fare, he featured acts such as American Borderline, a frat-boy-and-cheerleader extravaganza including – as his flyer promised – sex toys, strippers, naked teenagers in jacuzzis, strobe showers and many other such marvels.
All of which, were made content by the adult media company YouPorn.
What's more, Océane felt unloved by her boyfriend, saying that she received physical abuse from him.
Océane was depressed.
As a young woman living the the Parisian suburbs Égly, she lived in a place where no one seemed to be able to engage with anything consequential. Égly is dull if compared to Paris, the capital where many things are centered. Aglatiens (the name for people living in Égly), don't see many tourists.
This makes Océane who was already suffering from depression, more depressed.
"You need people? No I don't care, I actually don't care that there are people. The message, don't worry, I can tell you that the message will actually be delivered anyway."
"What would make me happy?” she said, in one of her few answers. “Nothing, that’s the point. I’ve got to the stage where nothing can make me happy anymore. I can’t even find the energy to get out of bed in the morning."
“Je suis trop blasé,” she said, which translates roughly to her feeling "empty" or "numb".
On May 10, 2016, in a live stream on Periscope, she said that she is trying to differentiate herself from social media’s general culture of self-promotion
“The video I’m going to make,” she said, “isn’t designed to faire le buzz. It’s supposed to make people wake up, to open their minds. I want to communicate a message, and I want it to be passed around, even if it’s very shocking.”
"Minors, do not stay," she had warned.
With more than a thousand people watching her stream, people joked about her appearance and expressed lewd anticipation about what she might do.
Several harassment later, Océane kept her sad smile, with empty eyes wandering into nothingness.
Just before 4.30pm, she took her broadcast out of her house, and to the Égly’s RER station, which isn't far from her house. As she got close, the mood she was expressing, did spooked some of her followers. People began wondering what was her plan, with many of her followers starting to feel uneasy.
Several people that speculated about her suicide mission, tried to dissuade her during the last minutes of the video. Dozen also called for help
But everything was too late because not long after that, Océane threw herself under a train on line C of the RER, with a suburban train hitting her at 4.29pm.
With the phone still broadcasting, the chat bubbles were full of people questioning, scared, and wandering what might happened to her. Some left, with the rest continued watching.
It was then that the phone was picked up by a helmeted firefighter, who looked at the screen, and pressed the stop button.
When the news broke, Océane death shocked many people in France.
Many of those commentators, as well as journalists, internet users, and some politicians, are beginning to see what role social media, or in this case, Periscope, might have played in her decision.
They also asked whether or what these platforms could have done to help her.
Oceane's death has also highlighted the questions about how France monitors social media.
Twitter that owns Periscope, said that it had removed the content but did not comment on individual accounts.
For its part, Periscope that received the alert from some of her followers, transmitted the risk of taking action to the authorities via the government platform 'Pharos', which is dedicated to illegal content on the internet.
Éric Lallement, a local prosecutor, said the young woman, whom he did not identify by her name, had sent a text message to a friend about her former boyfriend, saying her ex had abused and even raped her when they were at Perpignan, a southern French city near the Mediterranean coast and the border with Spain.
In the text message, “she declares she is ending her life because of the evil that he did to her,” Lallement said in a statement.
He added that investigators were examining her phone and were also working to obtain the original videos from Periscope.
The investigators, Lallement said, had talked to the woman’s family members, and they had described her as being psychologically fragile and suffered depression following her troubled relationship with the ex-boyfriend.