The Supreme Court of India has reportedly directed national broadcaster Doordarshan to air a program highlighting the ‘evil impact’ of the online suicide game ‘Blue Whale Challenge‘. The court has also directed other TV channels to telecast the program.
The Blue Whale Challenge, which is said to have originated in Russia, requires participants to complete daily tasks for a period of 50 days. The final dare of the game is to commit suicide. The game particularly plays with the psyche of vulnerable teenagers, and lures them into inflicting harm and injuries upon themselves.
A number of recent teen deaths in India have been attributed to the game. In one of the most recent cases, 20 students of Kendriya Vidyalaya of Belagavi, Karnataka, were found with cut on their hands – one of the tasks associated with the game. The class 8 and 9 students later confirmed that they were part of the deadly game. 
To curb the growing menace of the game through social media, the Ministry of Electronics and IT had directed all networks including Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft, and Yahoo to remove links to the infamous game. 
The latest development comes in light of a petitioner’s plea seeking a ban on the game in September. The petitioner also sought that an awareness should be created about the Blue Whale Challenge game. Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court had also issued notices to social networks to file a status report stating the measures implemented to stop the game’s spread on their platforms. The Madras High Court took assistance of IIT Madras to remove the links to the game.
The creator of the deadly game is a 22-year-old Philipp Budeikin from Russia, who admitted to developing the game to incite the youth to kill themselves. Budeiki has been sentenced to imprisonment for three years. He said he would select people he considered weak enough to be manipulated.