I wonder if these deaths are linked to... I'm struggling for a word here. Extortion doesn't really capture it.
I've heard discussion of "hurtcore" sites[1] in public venues.
The reporting in the above cited case (and several others adjacent) seems to focus on the CSAM angle, rather than the meta level issue of extortionists running roughshod over the internet.
There are a LOT of rules about security clearances. I never had one, but I knew people who did, and it used to really enrage me in my early 20s how folks would gatekeep access to stable, well paying jobs while yeeting out into cyberspace how much they love snorting coke, smoking weed, and purchasing the services of sex workers.
(Fun fact: prostitution is also illegal at the federal level, but for some reason the feds hyperfocus on weed. It's almost like they don't actually care about protecting victims, just propping up an abusive world order... but this isn't a political discussion site, so I'll stop myself from going on yet another vent session.)
Anyways... maybe I'm the cyberspace equivalent of Charlie from Always Sunny in front of his "big board", but at least I said my piece. But there are other cases, less reported on. (One involved a German army officer for example) where folks gathered not just to trade abuse imagery, but to gather together to torment folks.
There's been some more recent reporting on 764[2], but in that liminal period in between those two articles lies so many untold stories... multiple darknet communities that deserve longreads that were never written, possibly because so few people with technical acumen can also write prose, and the ones with that very particular set of skills often are very, very busy and very very very sleep deprived.
[1] "Inside the Repulsive World of ‘Hurtcore’, the Worst Crimes Imaginable" https://www.vice.com/en/article/59kye3/the-repulsive-world-o...
[2] "The recruiting process usually starts with The Com members starting a relationship with the victim, sending them kind and romantic messages. Once the victim trusts the member, they gradually start to coerce the victim to share private information. After the victim shares the material, The Com starts to blackmail them into sending violent material, for example videos of the victim hurting strangers, their family, or themselves." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Com#Notable_activities