Molly Russell's father will tell UK cinemagoers that "Instagram helped kill my daughter" in an advert to be shown before screenings of a new film about Mark Zuckerberg's social media empire.
In the 30-second ad before The Social Reckoning, released on Friday, Ian Russell says "too little has changed" since the death of his 14-year-old daughter, who took her own life in 2017 after viewing harmful content on Instagram.
Ad campaign and free cinema slots
He will ask viewers to donate to the Molly Rose Foundation (MRF) to "stop companies like Meta endangering young people like Molly". The Aaron Sorkin film focuses on the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
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.
Russell's direct appeal
Speaking directly to the audience, Russell will say: "I've said it for years: Instagram 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."
Kathryn Jacob, the chief executive of Pearl & Dean, said: "We 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."
Additional radio ads and film context
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.
Haugen's revelations about Facebook and Instagram's approach to online safety, detailed in the Sorkin film, included internal research showing that Instagram content had a negative impact on teenage girls' mental health. At the time Zuckerberg's company said the coverage of the research "focused on a limited set of findings and casts them in a negative light".
The film also covers Haugen's testimony to the US Congress, in which she said the social media corporation put "astronomical profits before people", harmed children and destabilised democracies.
Background and aftermath
Haugen is played by the Oscar winner Mikey Madison, while Zuckerberg is played by Succession's Jeremy Strong. The Guardian's review of the film, a quasi-sequel to the Sorkin-scripted The Social Network, says it "rattles along at an entertaining clip", adding that Strong – taking over from Jesse Eisenberg in Social Network – delivers a "very interesting Zuckerberg impersonation, standing and sitting like a Thunderbird puppet".
The 2022 inquest into Molly's death was a landmark moment for online safety. The coroner ruled that she "died from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content" and that algorithms had pushed harmful content to Molly that she had not requested.
At the time, Russell accused Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, of guiding his daughter on a "demented trail of life-sucking content" that included material related to self-harm, suicide and depression. Meta later made a donation to MRF in lieu of a legal settlement to Molly's family.
In a statement issued after the release of the documentary Molly vs the Machines this year, which recreates moments from the inquest, Meta said its thoughts "remain with Molly's friends and her family". The company said it had introduced safety measures since Molly's death, making private accounts the default for all under-18s, and restricting who could message them and the content they saw.
