The origins of the video are murky, and it's unclear who uploaded it or when. However, it's believed to have been recorded in the early 2000s, and it has been circulating online in various forms since then. Over the years, the video has been shared on various social media platforms, forums, and websites, often accompanied by warnings and trigger notifications due to its graphic nature.
Mental health advocates argue for a new category of digital preservation: This would allow the Archive to store the file (for research and historical integrity) but lock it behind a "researcher access only" wall, requiring ID verification and a signed ethics waiver. As of late 2024, the Internet Archive has not implemented such a system for this specific video, preferring a "URL removal upon request" policy that is inconsistently enforced. ronnie mcnutt video internet archive