South Korea reports 600,000 cases of suicide-encouraging content, most remain online

South Korea received over 600,000 reports of suicide-encouraging online content in 2025, yet 70 percent remained online at year's end, according to government data released Wednesday. The Health Ministry logged 602,781 reports of "suicide-inducing information," a category covering posts seeking suicide partners, encouraging suicide, or detailing lethal methods. Social media accounted for 525,643 reports, with X responsible for 99.9 percent of those cases. Online communities had the lowest removal rate at 5.7 percent. The government had only one monitoring official until 2024, now increased to four. Starting Nov. 12, platforms must immediately remove such content, with AI-based round-the-clock monitoring planned.