He said Meta had to change its “toxic corporate culture”. Russell said: “If this demented trail of life-sucking content was safe, my daughter Molly would probably still be alive and instead of being a bereaved family of four, there would be five of us looking forward to a life full of purpose and promise that lay ahead for our adorable Molly.” Lagone apologised after admitting some of the posts and videos viewed by Molly had breached guidelines. Elizabeth Lagone, the head of health and wellbeing policy at Meta, had described one batch of depression, suicide and self-harm content seen by Molly before her death as “safe” because it adhered to content guidelines at the time. He criticised evidence given by Meta in the hearing. Russell said afterwards: “It’s time to protect our innocent young people, instead of allowing platforms to prioritise their profits by monetising their misery.” “It is likely that the above material viewed by Molly, already suffering with a depressive illness and vulnerable due to her age, affected her in a negative way and contributed to her death in a more than minimal way,” he said, delivering his findings of fact at north London coroner’s court. He said some of the content “romanticised” acts of self-harm and sought to discourage users from seeking professional help.Ĭoncluding that it would not be safe to rule Molly’s cause of death as suicide, Walker said some of the sites she had viewed were “not safe” because they allowed access to adult content that should not have been available to a 14-year-old. He said algorithms that curate a social media user’s experience had pushed harmful content to Molly that she had not requested. Molly “died from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”, Walker ruled on Friday. He called for the government to implement its long-delayed online safety bill.Įxecutives from Meta and Pinterest who gave evidence before the senior coroner, Andrew Walker, during the two-week hearing, apologised for what their platforms had shown Molly. Russell, 59, urged Mark Zuckerberg to “listen to the people who use his platform, listen to the conclusions the coroner gave and then do something about it”. The inquest heard on Friday that Molly, from Harrow, north-west London, had viewed large amounts of content related to suicide, depression, self-harm and anxiety on Instagram and Pinterest before she died in November 2017.
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