Molly Russell\u2019s father will tell UK cinemagoers that \u201cInstagram helped kill my daughter\u201d in an advert to be shown before screenings of a new film about Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s social media empire.<\/p>\n
In the 30-second ad before The Social Reckoning, released on Friday, Ian Russell says \u201ctoo little has changed\u201d since the death of his 14-year-old daughter, who took her own life in 2017 after viewing harmful content<\/a> on Instagram.<\/p>\n He will ask viewers to donate to the Molly Rose Foundation (MRF) to \u201cstop companies like Meta endangering young people like Molly\u201d. The Aaron Sorkin film focuses on the Facebook<\/a> whistleblower Frances Haugen.<\/p>\n The ad will be screened at Everyman, Curzon, Showcase and AMC cinemas showing the film in the UK after the cinema advertising company Pearl & Dean offered space to MRF for free.<\/p>\n Ian Russell says in the ad that \u2018algorithms still force streams of toxic content on to children\u2019. Photograph: Publicity image<\/p>\n Speaking directly to the audience, Russell will say: \u201cI\u2019ve said it for years: Instagram<\/a> helped kill my daughter. Too little has changed. Promises to deliver safety have failed. Algorithms still force streams of toxic content on to children. So if you agree harmful tech is unacceptable and bosses like Mark Zuckerberg should be held accountable, please support Molly Rose Foundation to stop companies like Meta endangering young people like Molly.\u201d<\/p>\n Kathryn Jacob, the chief executive of Pearl & Dean, said: \u201cWe know that audiences appreciate advertising that is contextually relevant. The team at the Molly Rose Foundation worked hard to deliver a campaign that works with the film.\u201d<\/p>\n Bauer Media Audio, the owner of the Absolute Radio, Kiss and Jazz FM brands, is also donating free advertising space to MRF for a separate advert, also voiced by Russell, in which he asks parents seeking advice to contact the charity.<\/p>\n Haugen\u2019s revelations about Facebook and Instagram\u2019s approach to online safety, detailed in the Sorkin film, included internal research showing that Instagram content had a negative impact on teenage girls\u2019 mental health<\/a>. At the time Zuckerberg\u2019s company said the coverage of the research \u201cfocused on a limited set of findings and casts them in a negative light\u201d.<\/p>\n Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Reckoning. Photograph: Leah Gallo\/Sony Pictures\/AP<\/p>\n The film also covers Haugen\u2019s testimony to the US Congress, in which she said the social media corporation put \u201castronomical profits before people\u201d, harmed children and destabilised democracies.<\/p>\n Haugen is played by the Oscar winner Mikey Madison, while Zuckerberg is played by Succession\u2019s Jeremy Strong. The Guardian\u2019s review of the film<\/a>, a quasi-sequel to the Sorkin-scripted The Social Network, says it \u201crattles along at an entertaining clip\u201d, adding that Strong \u2013 taking over from Jesse Eisenberg in Social Network \u2013 delivers a \u201cvery interesting Zuckerberg impersonation, standing and sitting like a Thunderbird puppet\u201d.<\/p>\n The 2022 inquest<\/a> into Molly\u2019s death was a landmark moment for online safety. The coroner ruled that she \u201cdied from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content\u201d and that algorithms had pushed harmful content to Molly that she had not requested.<\/p>\n