KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian teenager who posted an Instagram poll asking if she should live or die took her own life after a majority of respondents voted for the latter, sparking calls for an investigation.
The unidentified 16-year-old from Kuching in eastern Sarawak state died after posting the poll Monday on the Facebook-owned picture-sharing platform. Police have classified the case as "sudden death".
"Really Important, Help Me Choose D/L," she wrote, according to a report on the news portal Astro Awani, with the letters "D" and "L" apparently referring to "die" or "live" respectively.
Sixty-nine percent of votes cast were in favour of her ending her life, with just 31 percent against, local media quoted police as saying. Lawmaker Ramkarpal Singh called for a probe into the circumstances of her death.
"Would the girl still be alive today if the majority of netizens on her Instagram account discouraged her from taking her own life?" he asked. "I urge the authorities... to investigate the social media accounts of the victim and the circumstances that led to her death to prevent further abuse of social media in similar circumstances in the future." Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq tweeted that he was "genuinely worried" about the state of mental health of young people in Malaysia.