WARNING: Contains themes some may find distressing
The Siberian TimesThe ringleader of a sick ‘suicide game’ has claimed his teenage victims are a ‘biological waste’ and that he is ‘cleansing society’.
Philipp Budeikin, 21, from Russia, is being held on charges of inciting suicide through a social media craze called Blue Whale.
Budeikin has now confessed to the crimes, which are believed to be linked to hundreds of teen suicides and cases of self harm, and told police the victims were ‘happy to die’ as part of his mission of ‘cleansing society’.
PexelsThe deadly social media game gives young players a ‘mentor’, who leads them through fifty dangerous and soul-destroying tasks designed to break their spirit and encourage them to take their own lives in the final challenge, at Budeikin’s bidding.
Amidst fears Blue Whale is spreading to Britian via social media, some schools have warned parents against the dangers of allowing children to participate in the sick game.
Blue Whale plants suicidal thoughts into malleable minds with pictures of an approaching train captioned, “This world is not for us” and photographs of teens on a roof, claiming “We are children of the dead generation”.
Siberian TimesThey are also urged to watch horror movies all day, and to wake themselves at 4.20 am, exhausting the children into submission.
Two friends, Yulia Konstantinova (pictured above), 15, and Veronika Volkova, 16, reportedly committed suicide in an apartment block in Ust-Ilimsk, Irkutsk region.
Yulia left a note saying ‘End’ on her social page after posting a picture of a blue whale. The animal’s image is seen as a symbol of the disgusting social media movement, manipulated by sick adults.
Siberian TimesHer friend Veronika (pictured below) wrote, “Sense is lost… End”. She regularly posted messages with heart-breaking sentiments, such as, “Do you feel that gradually you become useless?” or “I’m just a ghost”.
Their suicides are just two in a string of cases where teenagers have taken their own lives.
In a chilling interview, Budeikin said he put young girls in a ‘trance’ adding he intended them to commit suicide:
Yes. I truly was doing that. Don’t worry, you’ll understand everything. Everyone will understand. They were dying happy. I was giving them what they didn’t have in real life: warmth, understanding, connections.
There were 17 of them… There were also those with whom I was simply communicating, who committed suicide later but without my direct influence.
There are people – and there is biological waste. Those who do not represent any value for society. Who cause or will cause only harm to society.I was cleaning our society of such people. It started in 2013 when I created F57 [online] community. I’d been thinking through this idea for 5 years. It was necessary to distinguish normal [people] from biological rubbish.
Siberian TimesBudeikin has been inundated with love letters from Blue Whale followers, according to Russian police authorities where he is being held at the notorious Kresty jail in St Petersburg.
The majority of the letters are from young, vulnerable girls. Worryingly, the law cannot ban Budeikin – also known to his victims as Philipp Lis (meaning Fox) from receiving the letters. Budeikin has been held since November 2016, pending trial.
Anton Breido, a senior official from the Investigative Committee, warned:
Budeikin very clearly knew what he had to do to get the result [he wanted]. He started in 2013 and ever since he has polished his tactics and corrected his mistakes.
Philipp and his aides at first attracted children into VK [Russian social media] groups by using mega-scary videos. Their task was to attract as many children as possible, then figure out those who would be the most affected by psychological manipulation.
The Siberian TimesBreido added the death group administrators have referred to the teenage participants as “Biological waste” and explained that Budeikin had been a friendless youngster, full of conflict and ignored by his own mother.
Among the named dead are 12-year-old Angelina Davydova, Diana Kuznetsova, 16, and Vilena Piven who was just 15.
If any of the issues above have affected you, you can call Samaritans anytime, from any phone, free of charge on 116 123.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.