PSA: Blue Whale Challenge and Making PSAs for Non-Amino Issues

PSA and Cover Edit by: Kirumi

PSA written with help from: Sae

Hello, I am Kirumi, and I am here with a PSA about something that happens on this Amino quite a lot.

We’ve all seen it before. A will make a post on something happening on another platform, such as IRL killing games or the blue whale challenge. They usually mean well and want to make other s on the Amino aware of the issue. Surely that can’t be harmful, right? However, making PSAs about non-Amino issues on the Danganronpa Amino can be problematic in more ways than one.

You may be wondering what topics count as non-Danganronpa Amino related topics. Some examples of this are the Blue Whale challenge, which is taking place on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, and hasn’t spread to any Amino, as far as I’m aware, and s being toxic or getting into drama on Twitter or Instagram, which, as the description suggests, are from Twitter and Instagram. Unless there’s someone DMing people about the Blue Whale challenge on this Amino or people fighting over the same issue here as on Twitter, the issue is not Amino-related. Just because an issue isn’t currently happening on Amino doesn’t mean a won’t make a PSA about it, as it is important to warn s in case it spreads here.

Blue Whale Challenge

Just as a warning, the next section is about the Blue Whale challenge and mentions suicide, but the sections after this one are safe to read.

The Blue Whale challenge specifically is a challenge that has resurfaced on the Internet recently. The challenge has existed for several years, but is being talked about again in 2020 due to there being social media s messaging people things related to this challenge. The challenge first started in 2013, and also circulated in 2016. The main premise of the challenge is that there are challenge s who will dm s challenges they need to complete. These challenges eventually lead up to the final challenge, which is the telling you to commit suicide. If you failed to comply with the challenges, you would be threatened and doxxed. The people targeted were usually people who were depressed or already had suicidal thoughts. The original s of the game were arrested, but new people, likely Internet trolls, have started sending the challenges again. People have actually commited suicide due to these challenges, and a lot have occured in Russia.

The s currently spreading around the challenge are usually named Johnathan Galindo, and have a profile picture of a man who looks like the Disney character Goofy or Mickey Mouse that originates from the cover of a rap song. Similarly to the Blue Whale challenge, the s will DM you to send you challenges, which eventually lead into the telling you to commit suicide. The s may also post disturbing images or videos and may threaten you in order to get you to commit suicide.

At the time of me writing this PSA, no s related to this have ed Amino, and most of the s are on Twitter and Instagram. If an with a name and profile picture matching the ones sending the challenges ed the Amino, they would get banned right away. However, if s related to this challenge do this Amino and message you, the best thing you can do is delete the pm from the without opening it, as it may contain disturbing content, and reporting the immediately to a mod. It is also recommended that you change your settings so you can only be DMed or have wall comments from people you follow. In addition, please do not share any personal information on the Internet so you can reduce your likelihood of being doxxed.

Why You Shouldn’t Make PSAs on Non-Amino Issues

Now, with serious issues like this going around social media, you might want to make a PSA to make s on the Amino aware of the issue. However, there are several reasons why this can be a bad idea.

First, it can incite unnecessary panic. Keep in mind that these issues are not occuring on Amino, but on other platforms, like Instagram or TikTok. Since the issues aren’t happening on Amino, making a post about them can imply that they’re happening on Amino as well, even when they’re not, and cause people to be afraid that their is going to be hacked or they’re going to be doxxed. However, unless these issues spread to this Amino, the s here are not in any danger. It makes much more sense to make a PSA on these issues on the platform they’re actually happening on, rather than an unrelated community. If you do see evidence on these issues spreading to Amino from other platforms, it’s much better to message a with the details of the situation, rather than making a post about it. Section four explains this more.

Second, they can contain misinformation. When something dangerous happens, emotions run high, and a that is concerned about a particular danger might rush to make a post about it before ing all of the facts. Whether due to misunderstandings or people outright lying to stir up drama, misinformation abounds on the Internet. Especially in regards to dangerous situations, having the correct information is important. If you make a PSA on an issue and don’t research it sufficiently, you could end up accidentally spreading harmful misinformation. You could downplay the harm of something, or could make something that is unlikely to happen seem like a giant threat. This is why the mod team makes PSAs on issues relevant to the community; we want to make sure that the community is aware of all the accurate information regarding the situation.

Third, these PSAs contain sensitive topics, often without proper warning. A great example of this is when people would make posts about the infamous Malvina bots. The recent versions of these bots sent NSFW images to s on Amino, and when posting PSAs about these bots, s would sometimes add screenshots that included the NSFW images. Another example is PSAs on the Blue Whale challenge, which mention suicide. This can be an uncomfortable topic for s, and a going through the latest feed unprepared and stumbling on a post about a suicide challenge and unsettle them. This is why the mod team is careful to always include proper warning for the PSAs we write, and make sure to not include any disturbing content directly in the PSA. If you make a PSA that includes screenshots of NSFW or disturbing content, you could end up with a strike from TA’s bot.

Fourth, if an issue is relevant to the community, a will make a post on it. This is for several reasons, such as the aforementioned misinformation and spam problems. By making a PSA for the entire community, the mod team makes sure that we provide the community with the correct information by researching the issue thoroughly and messaging the affected parties to hear what they have to say about it. Having one official PSA also allows the mod team to consolidate all of the necessary information into one post that will be broadcast to the community, rather than having multiple random s making short posts on the issue. This also helps with record-keeping. If a regular deletes their or is banned by TA, it may be hard to get that PSA back. Mod PSAs are written in Google Docs, shared with the entire mod team, and are kept on the main Mod Team to protect against the PSA vanishing if the original ’s is gone.

Please keep this in mind when you make posts. If you make a PSA on a non-Amino issue on this Amino, your post will be disabled. If you see any issue either on this Amino or on another platform that you think s here should be aware of, pming a so they can evaluate the issue and make a PSA, if necessary, is the better option.

Thank you for reading this PSA, and make sure you follow this rule when you post!