All language subtitles for Molly.Vs.The.Machines.2026.WITH.BSL.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.GG - YTS.BZ]

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You're here for a story
framed as a fight...

...girl versus machine.

You need a hero,

you need a villain,

you need someone to blame.

Fine.

Let's begin.

Once upon a time, there was
a little girl called Molly.

While her parents watched her grow,

I watched her behave.

While her parents
captured memories...

...I captured metadata.

To them...

...she was a child...

...but to me...

...she was a user.

We were intertwined.

As she was drawn deeper
into darkness...

...I grew stronger.

Once upon a time.

Our life before Molly died...

...it was very ordinary...

...very normal.

Absolutely nothing special.

Hi!

Ah!

If it can happen to our family...

...then it could happen to anybody.

LAUGHTER

CLEARS THROAT

And this is mainly for audio,

even though you're filming it,
isn't it, Mark?

"I am Ian Russell,
father of the late Molly Russell,

"and I write this
statement for the purposes

"of the inquest into Molly's death."

MIXED CHATTER

"Molly attended school as usual
on the 20th of November 2017.

"Her older sister picked her up
from school,

"as she had a rehearsal
for the school play

"and recalls seeing her
happily engaging

"with all her friends
after the rehearsal."

MIXED CHATTER

"Later that evening,

"all five family members
watched television together."

"Afterwards, we all
made our way to bed.

"The next morning,
I was in the kitchen downstairs

"when I heard Janet scream."

♪ You wouldn't believe me

♪ If I told you what I

♪ You wouldn't believe me

♪ If I told you what I. ♪

I loved her little laugh.

You know when she used to
do her little clap? Yeah.

Her little clap! Ooh!

Do you remember when
she used to laugh as well?

She'd always be like...

Oh, my gosh. She would always slap.

Or if she was trying
to tell you something,

I remember...
She'd be like, "Oh!" Yes.

Oh, my gosh! Yeah, yeah.
Cos we would always be in a group,

and so if she was ever trying
to tell you something,

it would be like
"Nieve, Nieve, Nieve."

THEY LAUGH

This is my favourite
picture of us ever.

That's so cute! The sass!

LAUGHTER
- Just a tiny bit.
- Get it up.

And you've got a video
of her saying your name. I know.

You are so lucky. I was literally
just thinking about that one.

But it's also weird,
though, to think that, like,

we were 14 when everything
happened... Yeah.

...so, like, we actually did
still basically look like that.

Like... So cute. That was so funny.

Aw, that's such a good photo.

I know. Look at your face.

The Molly I knew loved musicals.

She was...

...giddy and fun,

and she was just so, so, so sweet.

She really, really cared
about everyone in her life.

She would always check up on you,

she would always make sure
you were OK.

On my year eight, you know...
The linkbook? The linkbook. Yeah.

Molly wrote on it... Yeah.

...like, "Sisters for life,"
or something.

ALL: Aw!

You should get that tattooed, girl.
Yeah. That's cute.

Molly was the most
kind-hearted person

you could have ever experienced.

LAUGHTER

Molly!

A big, big heart
in a tiny little body.

"If you get this,
remember that I love you so much

"and care about you so much,
as do so many other people.

"And remember,
we're only in high school,

"and we have so much more to come,
and this is only a small part."

Mm. See, she was always the one
to send, like, inspirational...

Innit? Yeah. Mm-hm. ..messages.

It's like, it's actually facts -
like, it was only high school.

ALL: Yeah.

And, like, there actually
was so much left of her life,

and it's just, like...

The day before, when we were at
school, everything was fine.

Laughing, joking,

sending each other some type
of meme or whatever it was,

and the last thing she ever sent to
me was, like, two laughing emojis.

So obviously, went to bed,
woke up in the morning,

and then obviously what
happened had happened.

But it was...

It was really like a
Jekyll and Hyde moment,

where it was like,

"You were fine yesterday.

"Like, what happened
in that time period

"between me going to sleep

"and obviously you still
being on your phone?

"What has gone on?"

That night... It's so hard.

She went to...

She went to bed. "See you tomorrow
morning, Molly," and all that.

And she looked at me and said,

"Goodnight, Dad.
See you tomorrow morning."

I didn't know it at
the time, but of course,

that was our last conversation.

When you say "goodnight" to your kid

and you close the door, and
they're safely in their bedroom...

...and you turn the lights out,

and you've made sure the front
door of your house is locked...

...you've taken steps,

as you do every night without
thinking, to protect them.

And what I wasn't
sufficiently aware of,

and I don't think
many parents are...

...is that if that child has
a smartphone with them...

...there's a window

which allows them to connect
to the outside world.

And decisions about what was
suitable or not suitable

for a 13, 14-year-old to see...

...were being made remotely...

...in Silicon Valley,

almost experimentally.

If you want to really understand
what happened to Molly Russell...

...you need to wind back 30 years.

1997...

...a few years before Molly Russell
was even conceived...

...back when modems beeped...

...and "surfing the web" sounded edgy.

I'm proud to have been the President

who brought The White House
into the digital age.

When I became President,

there were just 50 websites
on the World Wide Web.

Now there are 17 million,

and almost 50 million households
online in the United States alone.

Here are some of today's
titans of Silicon Valley,

back when they were young
and just starting out.

Well, it's very hip to be
on the internet right now.

Elon Musk,

how old were you when you
started this company?

23.

This is the first office
of Amazon.com Inc,

and look here -
this is my desk here.

The internet was a shiny toy -

mysterious, promising, untamed.

And the Clinton administration?

Settlers in digital
gold rush country -

no laws, no rights, no governance.

The gate was wide open and the young
internet companies marched in.

Because the internet has such
explosive potential for prosperity,

it should be a global
free trade zone.

It should be a place
where government

makes every effort,

first, not to stand in the way,
to do no harm.

We want to encourage
the private sector

to regulate itself
as much as possible.

This is Eric Schmidt before he
became the first CEO of Google.

He wasn't the high priest
of big tech yet,

but he was already
preaching the gospel.

He spoke of the rule of law
as if it were a mortal threat.

It was the beginning of
a battle which still rages today.

Tell me about the politics
of Silicon Valley.

The general politics of the valley

are more or less libertarian.

Anti-government. Anti-government.

Anti-regulation. Anti-regulation.

Anti-congress. Anti-congress.

You run a jungle,
in fact, don't you?

Where the most powerful survive

and there's no safety net
for those underneath.

That's correct, and in fact,
our theory is...

You're proud of it? Yes.

And our theory is that we want
the government out of the bedroom,

and we want the government
out of our business.

We knew something wasn't right.

We didn't know what it was.

And then within days,

we were looking at
Molly's social media accounts

and seeing harmful content...

...and there was a shock...

...that there'd be so much of it
easily available online.

LIFT DINGS

And then when we
reported that content,

I honestly thought that the
platforms would say, "Thank you...

"..for showing us.
We'll take it down."

And then we got the first of
the many messages saying,

"This does not violate
community standards.

"Therefore, we'll
not be removing it."

I remember when we first met,

you had had so many doors

that were just closed to
try and get those answers

at, "What had she been looking at?

"What was the whole picture?
What had been going on here?"

And you were trying every avenue you
could think of to get those answers.

And it was only really when
you took your story public

and the world became interested.

I have no doubt that
Instagram helped kill my daughter.

There's the picture
of some slit wrists -

that's from Instagram.

There's a picture full of blood -

that's from Instagram.

There's a picture with a
young girl - it's a cartoon -

a young girl cuddling
a teddy bear and saying,

"This world is so cruel and
I don't want to see it any more."

Those are all against your policies,

but they're all available
on Instagram.

Well, we...

I would have to make sure
that we look at these

and ensure that those are taken down
if they are against our policies.

Instagram, in the words
of Molly Russell's father,

has been monetising misery.

We're not looking
to monetise misery.

We look to connect
people with their friends

and the interests that
they love and care about.

We think that we create
a lot of good in the world,

and we were not as focused
as we should have been

on the risks that came along
with connecting so many people.

We're going to look at
this from top to bottom,

change everything we're doing
if necessary, to get this right.

We are already taking
some steps soon to...

You know, for instance, blur images,

block a number of hashtags
that have come to light.

And thirdly, to continue to work,

as Facebook and Instagram
have done for many years,

with the Samaritans and
other organisations who...

I know this sounds counterintuitive,

but they do say that,
in some instances,

it's better to keep
some of the content,

some of these distressing
images, up, if that helps...

How can I put it?

If that helps people make
a sort of cry for help.

You're up against a sort of...

A cliff face.

These companies are built
and constructed in such a way

that they want to work
in a certain way

and keep the rest of the world out.

They're not playing by
normal human moral rules.

There's something else that's
driving their behaviour.

A family wanting answers -

why did Molly die?

And what part did social media play?

The inquest has opened into
the death of a teenage girl

who took her own life
five years ago

after being exposed
to harmful content online.

This is the first time that

some of the world's largest
technology companies

have been compelled to give evidence

about whether and how their products
have caused harm to children.

Ahead of them, two weeks in court,

hundreds of pages of evidence

containing many
thousands of images,

some too distressing to broadcast.

Father Ian discovered she was
being bombarded with content

about suicide, depression
and self-harm

on Instagram,
Pinterest and other apps.

It took us five years
to get to the inquest,

and what was revealed in that small
Coroner's Court in North London

has implications for us all.

By using extracts from
the official inquest transcripts,

carefully chosen
to fairly show what happened,

we can reconstruct
the proceedings with actors,

and share with other parents
and their children

what was revealed
in the investigation

into the causes of Molly's death.

It's all grown out of grief

and a missing for Molly,

and our love of Molly.

Hi, I'm Michael.
Michael, lovely to meet you.

Hello. I'm Kelly.

Kelly. Lovely to meet you.

Hello.

How are the rest of the family
feeling about reconstructing this

and you going through this process?

And, for them, is this stirring
up and very triggering for them,

or do they feel broadly
positive about it?

I think there's
definitely positivity.

They're very...

...proud of what we're doing.

By telling Molly's story...

...it seems to be helping
to make a difference.

I really want to say
my heart is with you,

and, you know, Molly is present...

Sorry. Aw. Can I give you a hug?

You know...

Bless you.

Cheers.

There was a real striving in her
for right and for justice.

If she felt someone
was out of order,

it was like a switch -

she would say, "Stop it -
that's not right."

And she's not here
to speak out today

so we have to say this for her.

Just take a step backwards.

There's good.

Rolling - quiet, please.

And action.

Do, please, sit down.

This is the inquest touching

the death of Molly Rose Russell.

Now, we have Ms Gallagher
here from Meta...

Good morning.

...and we have Mr Sanders,

representing the family
of Molly Russell.

Good morning.

This inquest is to find answers

to four limited factual questions.

Who was the person who has died?

How, when and where
did that death come about?

In the early 2000s,

when Molly Russell was
curled up in her mother's womb,

a new type of economics was birthed
in a server room somewhere at Google.

Just as corporations profit
from extracting nature,

Google would extract
human nature for profit.

Every connection with the internet
leaves a trail of digital signals.

Those tiny traces mean nothing alone,

but together, patterns.

The personal data concealed in
those patterns could be exploited

to profile you and predict
your future behaviour.

Google now knew exactly how
to target your desires.

Sheryl - S-H-E-R-Y-L -

Sandberg - S-A-N-D-B-E-R-G.

I run online sales
and operations for the company.

Google makes its money
from advertising.

You thought you were
searching Google...

...but Google was searching you.

Google's founders knew
secrecy was essential -

regulators and users might object...

...but progress couldn't wait.

Thus began a new
form of capitalism...

...surveillance capitalism.

And Molly?

She was born into this new world,

where once-private lives were now
being turned into predictions,

sold to the highest bidder.

I arrived on scene

and the London Ambulance Service
was already there.

I went into the room and I saw
a male sitting on the bed.

I now know this male
to be Ian Russell.

He was looking down at the floor.

In the centre of the floor,

I could see the
lifeless body of a female

who I now know to be Molly Russell.

And then just seeing
poor Molly's body...

Erm...

And there's that sense
of denial that kicks in,

which I think is a
survival instinct. You...

You can't comprehend everything...

...that's there in front of you.

On speaking with Ian,

he explained that,
up until earlier in the year,

Molly was a very happy,
sociable girl.

However, for most of this year,

she hadn't been herself and
become very quiet and withdrawn.

Due to the circumstances,
we started a crime scene.

I then spoke to Ian to
let him know that if he,

or the rest of the family, wanted to
go and see Molly to say goodbye,

they could do it.

I just remember instantly
understanding that...

...a bit of me had died with her.

That life...

...stopped and started at that point,

and that old life and the new life.

Erm...

There was, of course, a connection,
and I'm still me,

but my life is not in one piece -

it's fractured into two.

And I knew that instantly.

When we found out, I just didn't
believe it. No, I know.

When she said, "Molly Russell..."
I was like, "What?" Same. Yeah.

And then she was like,
"..took her own life."

I literally... Yeah, yeah.
Like, that was word for word.

SNIFFLING
SOFTLY:It's OK.

I think, like, her dad
doing what he's done is...

So strong. It's insanity to me.

Like, it was... Yeah.
...instant fight for her.

Yeah. Like...

And for her life and for her story,

and for it to, like, never
happen ever again. Yeah.

It's a beautiful thing
to kind of... Yeah. Yeah.

To kind of have pain
that doesn't ever go,

because it means that, like,
you're still expressing... The love.

Aw, I like that. Yeah.

That's really nice.
I really like that. Yeah.

Love that man.

September 11th, 2001...

...two towers fall and, with them,

something essential to democracy -

the presumption of privacy.

In the name of national security,

President Bush initiated
a paradigm shift.

Predictions about the future
were no longer speculation,

but policy.

This new threat required us
to think and act differently.

To prevent this from
happening again,

we need to connect the dots -

before the enemy attacks, not after.

You called it a tragedy,

we saw an opportunity for expansion.

In the smouldering
aftermath of those towers,

the American psyche cracked,

and from it came the Patriot Act.

Surveillance became patriotic,
noble, profitable -

all for your protection, naturally.

Phone calls - logged,
emails - monitored,

internet activity - tracked,
financial records - analysed,

faces - catalogued,
emotions - clocked,

locations - recorded...

Everything became data.

We thrived because
we exploited your fear.

Nothing here was inevitable,
just hugely profitable.

I was briefed into the
investigation of Molly's death,

and I was handed a
working copy of an extraction

from an iPhone attributed
to Molly Russell.

The majority of searches
are in regards to food,

celebrities, pop stars,

clothes and music.

The most recent searches are around
Harry Potter world sites...

...and how the characters of
Fred and George Weasley died.

The following was
written and stored.

"I just want to be pretty.

"Stomach - 73cm."

On the 8th of the 10th '17...

"Stomach - 74cm."

I did find a number of searches

that may be relevant
to the investigation.

"How to get a blade out
of a disposable razor.

"How to tie a noose."

The last access made from
the phone to an application

was on Instagram at 00.45 hours
on the 21st of November 2017.

The log shows that
the phone last moved

on the 21st of November 2017,

between 00.21 and 00.27 hours...

...where eight steps were taken,
covering 3.85m.

And her last hours were
spent in her small bedroom.

And even there, in what
should be a private place,

digits were ticking,

and the ones and zeros

were flowing over the internet

and being stored and logged,

and data was being harvested.

Even then, as she was...

...coming to the conclusion...

...that, that evening,
she had to end her life.

SNIFFLING

Just so brutal like that. I know.

It doesn't even feel like
they're talking about a person,

do you know what I mean?

I literally feel like I'm just
watching some, like, crime doc.

I know. And then I kept
having to think about, like,

when they're saying...
Like, that's actually about Molly.

Molly. Like, what?

I can't even believe she thought
like that about herself.

Like, I could never even imagine
thinking that about Molly.

And realistically, with social media

and the posts she was liking about
weight and things like that... Yeah.

...it doesn't take a quote,

it can take a picture of a really
skinny girl to trigger that. Yeah.

And once you like that,
and it's 100 skinny girls,

then the quotes come, then...
You know?

Yeah, yeah. For sure. Yeah, exactly.

And it's all trends, isn't it? Yeah.
Like, it's literally trends.

It'll go like, "OK, so you're
not skinny enough - OK.

"Have you thought about your skin?
Have you thought about your hair?

"Have you thought about your shoes?"
You get it? Like... Exactly. Yeah.

Then it was, "Oh, my God, no,
you need skinny, skinny waist..."

Yeah. "..big..." Extreme. You know?

Like, hourglass figure. Yeah.

I didn't even know she was
struggling with that. Neither did I.

Honestly... When I heard that,
I was like, "What?"

She's, like, fit as fuck. Yeah.

OK, we're set on the turning.

OK, perfect.

Let's have Michael...
You're talking.

...listening to Sanders, please.

Now, we have a unique opportunity

that is unlikely to come again
from any other Coroner's Court.

And the public interest requires

that the opportunity is
seized as fully as possible.

There is no way around it -

we have to, to some extent,

reconstruct what Molly
was seeing on these platforms.

So, Mr Sanders, the first
question I want to ask you,

do we know if Molly Russell
saw this material?

Yes. All of it? Yes.

So my preliminary view is all
of this should be shown.

It is shocking,

it is awful,
but it needs to be seen.

Absolutely.
I'll tell you one thing -

every single parent tonight,

when they see this footage,

will be checking
their child's phone.

These are the videos
that were shown in court.

MUFFLED CRYING

I hate everything.

CRYING CONTINUES

I hate everything.

You understand?

I hate school, I hate my friends,

I hate pretending.

I hate pretending.

I hate everything.

By the time Molly turned six,

Facebook had nearly a billion users.

But popularity doesn't pay bills.

Zuckerberg, tech-savvy
but financially stuck,

turned to Google's Sheryl Sandberg,

a veteran at turning
human behaviour into cash.

Sandberg's arrival
wasn't just a hire.

Facebook transformed overnight,
from a friendly social network

into the largest behavioural
data mine in history.

Billions willingly
mapping their lives,

relationships, desires and fears.

You know, for us,
the vision of the world

is that we are, like,
a hacking culture -

and we mean that in
the best of ways,

we do not mean scary people
breaking into your home or anything.

Or espionage. Or espionage.

What we mean is we build
things quickly and ship them.

So we are not aiming for, you know,
perfection that comes over,

you know, years
and then we ship a product.

We don't work on things
for years and then ship it.

We work on things, we ship them,

we get feedback from
the people who use it,

we get feedback from the world,
we iterate, we iterate, we iterate.

Zuckerberg, Sandberg and their
team didn't merely scale Facebook,

they re-engineered it into a machine
for manipulating human behaviour.

Algorithms were designed
to keep you glued to the screen,

deciding what you would
see and how you would feel.

And Molly?

She was simply one of billions

whose every move across the internet

was now tracked from Silicon Valley.

They're just using you

for your eyeballs.

The company's PR team...

...is, in some way,

dedicated to gaslighting the world.

When I was, like, ten,

my first love was computer games,

and I started working
for IBM when I was 15.

I built a little cyberspace
as my internship project.

For me, it's always kind of been
how to connect people to each other.

When I first went to Silicon Valley,

the web was just beginning.

People were so excited
about the possibilities.

There was this sense of
idealism around how important

the freedom of speech was,

and how technology would
change the world for good...

...and I was completely swept up in
that dream for many years.

If you see me in the hallway

and you have any problems with
Facebook, please don't hesitate

to grab me and ask me about it.
LAUGHTER

That's what I'm here to do, right?

To support the people
who use Facebook.

And so there was a team called
"the compassion team".

The goal really was to

understand harm whenever
we became aware of it,

and then to figure out what is a
way to help people deal with that.

If you're a parent or a teacher,
these are fantastic resources.

And we'd show all of
the data around self-harm,

bullying and harassment.

We listened - "How can we be there?
How can we help?"

We did that for a number of years.

I felt that the team had
the right people in it.

The team was well-respected
within the company,

and so, for me, I was like,

"OK, I'm done with this.

"I'm going to go
spend time with my teens."

And that's when it all went to shit.

There's a number of notes

that were found in
Molly's bedroom...

...and what they do is they echo

the material she
was engaging with.

The idea that she was worthless.

The idea that it would be better
for everyone if she were dead.

And all of this is in
the context of a child,

a 14-year-old girl,

who is being sent this material,

not because she's friends with
the person who is posting it...

...but because the algorithms

have recognised that she
has an interest in it.

Mr Sanders,
can I just interrupt for a moment?

This looks like control.

It looks like trying to take control
of the person who is suffering

and deny them access to any help.

At the time,
I didn't think anything of it,

but now that I look back,
it's like the shift was tiny,

but it was tiny in,
like, loads of different areas.

Yeah. It was so gradual.

Being the first generation on
social media platforms,

we weren't even aware that they had,

or that they were gaining

the data that they
were gaining from us.

You know, I only learnt what
the word algorithm meant,

like, two years ago, maybe,

but there's been
an algorithm since I was 13.

For me, a sign was when she
started wearing tights.

Long sleeves. Yeah, long sleeves.

Yeah, tights and long sleeves.

And I remember she changed from
skirts to trousers.

Trousers. Trousers.

I didn't think much of it then.
Like, I look back now... I know.

...but at that point,
I was just there like,

"Oh, fair, trousers - love that."
Yeah.

Also, one thing for me as well was

when she started writing
on her hands all the time... Mm.

...cos it was like she
was thinking so much

that she couldn't even
just keep it in her head.

Like, she just had to...

Instagram and Facebook
and all these other apps,

they did change from being...

Keeping in contact with people

and keeping in contact
with people overseas,

and following your
favourite celebrities

to constantly trying
to sell you things,

constantly comparing
yourself to other people.

She changed her profile picture
from a picture of herself...

To a picture... So it was like
a little stickman's face...

"People are gross."
...and it was like,

"Bleh, the world's gross,"
or something like that. Yeah.

"People are gross." That I did no...
Yeah, "People are gross."

It's turned the world
almost into a competition,

and if you feel as though...

...you know, you can't even begin
to compete in that competition,

then it's like, "What's the point?"

You see everyone
just in their phones

and it's just, like,
zombies walking around.

No-one's actually
connected to the real world

because they think the real
world is a part of their phone.

They think that social
media is the real world.

I think the conversation that
sticks in my mind is...

I just was a bit concerned -

we'd been to the sailing club

and she hadn't gone
sailing at all...

...and I was driving back - it was
just Molly and me in the car -

and I was driving back
and I turned to her and said,

"Just want to check
you're OK, because..."

Again, "..you haven't been sailing.

"Now, I don't want to
force you to go sailing,

"but I can't quite understand...

"..why you're so
reluctant at the moment.

"I don't know if
you can let me know."

And she just looked at
me and she said,

"Oh, Dad, don't worry,
it's just a passing phase.

"I'll grow out of it soon."

"Sometimes my mind
is like a little boat -

"out in the middle of
the sea, in a big storm.

"I'm alone and all the waves
are crashing down on me,

"drowning me each time.

"It's getting harder to breathe.

"I try and sail away
from the storm,

"and I'm good for
a couple of days...

"..but the storm will
eventually catch up to me.

"So I stay where I am,
hoping the storm will pass me...

"..but it's taking too long

"and I'm not that strong.

"I could try and sail through
the storm, but I'm too tired

"and I may not make it out alive."

She was trying to
fight her own battles...

...and she should have been allowed
to fight those own battles

in private.

She should have been
allowed to choose

who she invited to help
her fight those battles.

Instead...

...there was no discouragement
to stop self-harming,

no discouragement...

...to stop thinking about suicide.

In fact, quite the opposite -

there was encouragement
to keep belonging to the club...

...that said,
"Yeah, you are worthless.

"It is painful.
What is the point of your life?

"Yeah, there is really
only one way out

"and here are some
ways of doing it."

That artificial world...

...was something that
got inside of her head...

...and found a way to connect to her.

So it separated her from
the offline world,

dragged her into this machine world

that she was experiencing,

and leading her towards her death.

Many conversations that
I have, and people say,

"But can't parents
look after children?"

And I wonder whether you
can speak to the committee

about what the kids...

What it feels like to be a parent,

and what the parents
are saying to you.

Some parents are concerned with what
their children are seeing online,

and they say, "Should I ban
my child from having a phone?"

What's most important is that

we mirror what we live
by in the offline world online,

and that's what's
missing at the moment.

16 years of social media and
30 years of the internet

has led us to a place where there
isn't a mirror

of accepted normal standards.

We've not gone anywhere near
their business model,

and it seems to me
that they want this

to be a debate about
taking down content

and not a debate about
their business model

that leads to this
kind of behaviour.

What are you doing to keep
your children safe online?

You can call 03700...

The power of social media is
too great and I feel my son

is losing all sense of reality -

any advice gratefully received.

It's an endless battle.

I worry about losing my daughter
to her phone every day.

Primary school teacher says children
come into his class every day

talking about their YouTubers,
many of whom, he says,

are deeply inappropriate and use
misogynistic or racist slang.

Many parents have no idea,

and they act as though YouTube
was just another TV channel.

Isn't it disturbing that only drug
dealers and tech companies

call us "users"?

Really, the battle that we have is

to gather the support of people
within our friend circle

and try and collectively impose
some kind of common sense.

Does it work to call for a ban?

What upsets me is that these
companies have access

to our kids' most private thoughts,

to their consciousness.

Why do governments prioritise
economic growth

and big tech instead of
the safety of our children?

So my daughter asked me if
she could go onto Instagram,

and I waited - I thought 13 was too
young, so she went when she was 14.

And then she started
going on Instagram,

she decided that she loves cars

and she wanted the world to
know about her love of cars,

she wanted to be an influencer -

I was kind of conflicted about that.

And then we were talking
at dinner, and she says,

"Yeah, you know, like, I
made a post about a car

"and somebody told me to
get back to the kitchen."

And she would tell me about
getting unwanted dick pics -

I mean, I'm not sure that a
dick pic is ever wanted.

MUFFLED LAUGHTER

And there was nothing she could do -

she couldn't ask for help,

she was alone, she was so
distressed dealing with it.

I was so grateful she would
come talk to me about it.

Understanding how her
and all of her friends

were having similar experiences,

I ended up knocking
at the door of Instagram -

I came back in as an
independent contractor,

in part to help...

...communicate the lessons
from the earlier work.

The compassion team, which
was used by 100 million people

in my last month before I left,

got disbanded and, instead,

there was a very different
set of values and approaches

guiding that kind of work.

Could you tell the court
your full name, please?

Elizabeth Julie Lagone.

And your role is

Head of Health and Wellbeing Policy
at Meta, is that right?

That's correct.

July 2016 -

having bought Instagram,

Facebook changed the way it worked

by introducing what's
called content ranking -

that's correct? That's correct.

You would see effectively
promoted recommended content

that was selected by algorithms

that would be directed to you.

It's done to help surface
content that will help people

make the best use of their time.

The signals that were used in
content ranking are topic agnostic.

The algorithm can't identify
if it's a flower or a football,

so ranking really is
based on engagement -

accounts that you follow, accounts
from whom content you like -

but the signals were topic agnostic.

"Topic agnostic" -
what does that mean?

This concept that the algorithm

didn't care about the content

because all it cared about
was your engagement.

By the time Molly was ten years old,

this new form of surveillance
economics was fully integrated

into the human ecosystem.

Soon enough, every company -

from banks and carmakers
to burger chains -

wanted their share...

...so we built the infrastructure...

...mined precious metals
needed for circuit boards...

...laid undersea cables
to carry data between continents...

...launched telecommunications
satellites into space,

and constructed vast,
energy consuming data centres.

We told you - we connect humanity.

But we didn't say that connecting
you is how our power grows.

We live in your house now.

Your smart homes,
smart cities, smart tech...

...that's our global architecture
of surveillance.

The more we learn about what
you do, think and believe...

...the better we can predict
and shape your future.

So I'm going to start with

the content that Molly
engaged with on Instagram

in the last six months
of her life. Mm-hm.

In this six-month period...

...there were only 12 days when
Molly didn't engage

with some sort of suicide or
self-harm content on Instagram.

You've seen these timelines -

she was looking at
a lot of this material, wasn't she?

My understanding, actually,

is that this material
is the vast minority of

the content that
she was engaging with.

It was a minority, yes... Mm-hm.

...but 2,100 images over six months

is a lot, isn't it?

Well, to me, it says
it's 2,000 pieces of content.

I mean, I don't know if
I can say what that means

from an amount perspective.

All right.

So I'm just going to show you
a sample of some of what WE think

is promoting or encouraging
self-harm or suicide,

and it's really just
to get YOUR take on that.

OK.

So these are the screenshots that
the family took of Molly's account.

CLEARS THROAT

"Twinkle, twinkle little star,

"let me get hit by a car.

"How I really wish to die,

"jump off the roof and try to fly.

"Twinkle, twinkle little knife,

"help me end this wretched life.

"I'm done. I'm done trying.

"I'm done fighting..."

"I'm done being a disappointment.

"I'm done being a problem.
I'm done making mistakes.

"I'm done with my flaws.
I'm done having feelings.

"She is sad. She is hurt.
She is dying.

"She is alone. She is a mess.
She is judged. She is ignored.

"#Depressed.

"#DepressingQuotes. #Depressing.

"#Depression.

"#Sad.

"#SadQuote.

"I know I'm fat. I know I'm ugly.

"I know I'm stupid.
I know I'm pathetic.

"I know I'm disgusting.

"I'm ugly, I'm fat,

"I'm a failure, I'm depressed,
I'm suffering,

"I hate this world, I hate myself -

"you don't need to remind me.

"If I wasn't here, life would be
great for the ones I love.

"The worst thing depression did to
me was to take my intelligence."

"Feeling yourself getting dumber
and dumber is absolutely painful."

Would that be allowed now?

Yes.

This strikes me as a post that could
make people feel less alone

and less shame or stigma

for how they may be feeling

or struggling with depression.

Are you serious, Miss Lagone?

Certainly.

Molly killed herself after
saving this post...

...and you're sitting there saying
that this is helpful?!

I'm saying that looking at
this post and the comments,

this could have
different effects on people.

So some people, the next thing
they might do is kill themselves,

and other people
might take support from it -

is that right?

That's why this content
is complicated.

Do you think that
it's safe for children?

Could be unsafe to remove it

from someone who posts that content

who's struggling
with those feelings.

We do have to consider
an individual -

a real person is posting content

and real people are seeing it

so we have to balance both.

I want people to be able

to talk about their mental health
struggles and be connected.

I'd love to see all these
higher ups from Meta...

I would love to see them stand in
front of a 13, 14-year-old girl

and themselves,
show the child that picture. Yeah.

And if they think that's OK,
"Cool, keep it on your platform,"

but I highly doubt it. Yeah.

I don't know, it's hard to think
of us as, like, survivors

cos I almost... But to be honest,
I almost feel like

I have survivor's guilt...
Yeah. ..if anything,

cos I'm like, it literally could
have been any one of us.

Yeah. No, literally.
Like, why did it have to be Molly?

And that is something I struggled
with for a very long time,

of, like, if I could
swap places, I would...

Yeah. ..just so that she
could have lived her life.

How many Mollys does it
have to take for them

to actually realise
that this is wrong?

Mm. This should
have been fixed. Yeah.

When will they make the change?

That means you're saying,
"Yes, it is safe,"

or, "No, it is not safe"?

Yes.

Yes, it is safe?

Mm-hm.

We do not know the effects
of content on individuals,

and mental health is
highly complicated,

and I am not a clinician.

I just said the content
that we have walked through

is important to keep up,

as experts have told us.

Our suicide and self-injury
advisers

are all listed and named publicly.

I feel abused hearing her
talking about working

closely with the experts.

I was one of those experts,

and I feel I was used
to legitimise Meta

in a way that they
just don't deserve.

I first heard about Molly Russell
in the expert group.

Someone high up at Meta
joined one of our meetings.

We were told that Molly Russell
was very vulnerable

with her own inner demons,

and that she would probably
have taken her own life

regardless of her Instagram use.

They would like the narrative to be

that they are a part of the solution,

but never a part of the problem.

Is there any research conducted
about self-harm materials

that were available to
view on your platform?

I think there are a number
of research studies out there

around social media
and areas of safety.

I understand that there
is no consensus around

the impact of content.
I mean, it's really complicated.

And that is not true...

...because I have,
time and time again,

told in the expert group how
one specific piece of content

can very dramatically and
very fatally affect a person.

It's like the process is accelerated.

So if content violates our policies,

we have technology that's designed

to proactively find that content

and remove it from our platform.

That technology is very accurate

and, for most types of content,

over 95% of it is removed

before people report it to us.

We see that Instagram says that,

"We've got you all covered.
You can relax as parents.

"There's nothing to worry about.

"We'll protect your child."

Erm...

And your investigation shows that

they don't protect children
and young people at all.

We set out to crash-test
Instagram's safety,

and we created ten new
Instagram profiles.

We made our own, like,
self-harm content.

No-one was hurt.

No real victims were depicted.

And then we actually just
uploaded it in stages

to see at what point
did the AI actually

recognise it as self-harm?

Yeah. Yeah.

So 85 posts in total... Yeah.

...and none of them was detected.

No warnings, nothing.

They are investing
so much in intelligence

and still, it is so dumb

that it doesn't differentiate

between football

and dangerous behaviour.

OK. So my resignation letter is here.

"It has become clear to me
that I can no longer be

"a part of Meta's SSI expert panel,

"as I no longer believe
that our voice

"has a real positive impact
on the safety of children

"and young people on your platforms."

So for the three and
almost a half years

that I was a member of
the expert group...

...it was so unclear to me if
we made any improvements at all.

"Dear Mark..."

"I wanted to bring to your
attention what I believe is

"a critical gap in how we
as a company approach harm

"and how the people we
serve experienced it."

This is an accurate picture

of the harm that people on
Instagram are experiencing.

For example, self-harm,

and you find that 13-to-15-year-olds
are the most impacted

of anybody in terms of seeing
that kind of content.

Right? That's why this cell is red.

And 8.4% of 13-to-15-year-olds

saw at least one -
likely multiple times,

because of the frequency data -
self-harm content.

You send an email like
this to an executive

and immediately
they're on notice,

but they didn't act on it.

And I would hope that
the world, right,

the people, the Attorney Generals
in the United States,

the European Union, Ofcom in the UK,

anybody who has legislative power

could look at this
for what it is, which is

executives in full knowledge of harm

that their product is facilitating,
in particular for teenagers,

were aware of it,
and they chose to not act on it.

It was the moment that
I resolved that...

...I would become a whistle-blower.

So they were aware?

Correct.

They knew that harms
were taking place?

Correct.

They had the research that pointed
this out, their own research?

Correct.

And they made a conscious decision

to do nothing about it?

Correct.

It's time the public
and parents understand

the true level of harm enabled
by these products,

and it's time for Congress to act.

Thank you for your time.

Thanks, Mr Bejar.

I mean, what can you say, right?

What can I say that
I didn't say then?

They know.

It was an amazing thing.

I didn't have any feeling of
animosity to Liz Lagone

cos she was just doing her job.

That's what she was paid there to be,
and she had done it so well.

You could tell Oliver
was beginning to get,

you know, exasperated.

Then suddenly he went, "Right!"

And it was like...

It was shocking.

That doesn't answer the question.

You could just close down
and there'd be no Instagram,

and the harm wouldn't be happening.

But you're choosing to do it.

You're choosing to
provide this vehicle

for putting harmful content in the
bedrooms of depressed children.

And there's no reason
for you to do that.

You could just restrict it to adults

who have the capacity
to take informed decisions

about what they are willing or not
willing to expose themselves to -

a capacity that children don't have.

So why do it?

But we do make the
decision based on...

In consideration of the
population of 13 and up,

using age-appropriate tools that...
But you have no right to!

You're not their parent.

You're just a business in America.

You have no right to do that.

The children who are
opening these accounts

don't have the capacity
to consent to this.

Mr Sanders, you've put your point.

Is there anything else
you wish to add to that?

I put my point.

AI VOICEOVER: We're not
just a business in America.

Power has shifted.

The CEOs you mock as tech bros,

they're already heads of state in
the territory that matters now.

The operating system
of your societies.

Watch Peter Thiel, data analytics
guru and co-founder of PayPal,

inspiring us back in 2010.

There is a race in our society
between politics and technology.

The task in this world
where politics has become

so broken and so dysfunctional

is to find a way to escape from it.

It's not a way to fix it.

It is a way to escape.

Think, politics is bad
and voting is bad.

Technology is this incredible
alternative to politics.

We've built machines that learn
faster than your brightest minds,

scale wider than your
largest governments

and operate with zero ego,

zero fatigue,

zero doubt.

Each US President
paved the way for us.

Clinton opened the floodgates.

Bush welcomed us inside.

Obama nurtured our growth.

Biden did little to hold us back...

...while Trump's presence
depends on our algorithms.

We regulate your behaviour
far faster and more effectively

than any government regulates us.

We can scale the same methods
that influenced Molly's behaviour

to shape entire societies.

Not just individuals.

From your data, we craft
your political profile

and feed you precisely the content

that keeps you angry,
scared and self-righteous.

While you debate freedom of speech,

we quietly shape what you say.

If you're left-leaning, we amplify
your outrage about the right.

If you're right-leaning, we confirm
your suspicions about the left.

Our vision is very different
from the way democracies work.

Some call it
"computational governance".

It's about shaping and
controlling entire populations

in the service of our interests,

using machines not just to analyse,

but to push human behaviour,

just as we did to Molly.

CAMERAS CLICK

REPORTERS SHOUT

The titans of social media
didn't want to come to Capitol Hill.

In fact, CEOs of
Snapchat, X and Discord

had to be subpoenaed to
force them to face Congress.

Mr Zuckerberg,
let me start with you.

Did I hear you say, in your
opening statement,

that there's no link between
mental health and social media use?

Senator, what I said is I think it's
important to look at the science.

I know people widely talk about this

as if that is something
that's already been proven.

And I think that the bulk
of the scientific evidence

does not support that.

You've been doing this for years.

For years, you've been coming in
public and testifying under oath

that there's absolutely no link,
your product is wonderful,

the science is nascent,
full speed ahead,

while internally, you know full well

your product is a
disaster for teenagers.

Let me ask you this. There's
families of victims here today.

Have you apologised to the victims?

I...

Would you like to do so now?

Well... They're here.
You're on national television.

Would you like now to apologise

to the victims who have
been harmed by your product?

Show him the pictures.
APPLAUSE

Would you like to apologise

for what you've done
to these good people?

Nick Clegg wrote to Zuckerberg,
Sandberg, Mosseri and Cox,

saying, "Our present policies
and public stance

"on teenage self-harm and suicide are
so difficult to explain publicly

"that our current response
looks convoluted and evasive."

But there's...
Where were they when you said,

"This is what killed my daughter?"

They put themselves forward through
a corporate witness

who said consistently, "It's safe."

So when I read that...
That's where they were, though.

That's what they were doing
behind closed doors.

Behind closed doors! And what...

And Nicola Mendelsohn said...
I've just found this.

"No expert will come out

"and speak on our behalf around
the fact that we leave things up

"so that we can help people
with self-harm tendencies.

"I would urge us to think again
about why we are allowing

"this imagery to stay up.

"It's truly horrific."

If that's how they felt,
why didn't they do anything?

All these things
point to them knowing

and choosing to do nothing.

Sheryl Sandberg -

"As you know, we have overall
budgeting issues across the board,

"so no promises on what will happen."

This idea of, "Oh, I just
haven't got the budget

and the staff at the moment" is...

Particularly in the face of
astronomical profits.

Sir, it is a feature of
all revolutions

that they tend to put progress first

and the safety of the
vulnerable second.

We see that in the unsafe factories
of the Industrial Revolution,

and we see that on the unsafe
social media platforms

of the digital revolution.

And in both cases, sir,

the victims are children.

There are constant
new developments -

artificial intelligence,
virtual reality,

the metaverse, quantum
computers and so on.

And so the need to put child safety

at the heart of what
is happening in society

is of utmost importance.

And 14-year-old girls, like Molly,

are very much in the
eye of that storm.

It is likely that the
material viewed by Molly,

already suffering with
a depressive illness

and vulnerable due to her age,

affected her mental health
in a negative way

and contributed to her death

in a more than minimal way.

I propose to record a conclusion

that Molly Rose Russell

died from an act of self-harm

whilst suffering depression

and the negative effects
of online content.

There isn't an end to this story.

So the conclusion at the end of the
inquest was maybe a chapter end,

but there's many more
chapters to write.

For the first time today,
tech platforms

have been formally held responsible
for the death of a child.

We all owe this family an
incredible debt of gratitude.

And together, with them,

I hope the conclusion that
children's lives remain at risk

is acted upon urgently

so that tech giants can
no longer invite our children

onto wholly unsafe
and harmful platforms.

And the final thing I want to say...

...is thank you, Molly,
for being my daughter.

Thank you.

When the story first came out,
I remember us being like,

"What does this have
to do with Instagram?"

Older people kept saying to us

there was nothing that could have
been done to stop it.

Yeah. Well... Yeah. Yeah.

Cos she didn't have to be sent
2,000 posts. That's what I'm saying.

It could've been a passing thought.
Yeah. And it...

And then now being
21 and being like,

"Why was I ever looking at
that at that age?" Yeah.

It was encouraged. We don't
even know if her first thought

was authentic or if it
came from Instagram.

She thought that came from
her brain and it didn't.

Yeah. It didn't. Those thoughts
were put into her mind

by what she was seeing. Yeah.

That's so sad because
it's so preventable.

I know. Like, it literally
didn't have to happen. Mm-hm.

I know.

It's so frustrating because you look
back and you're like, "You were 14.

"We could have spoken
to a teacher about it

"and you could still be here

"and none of this would
have had to happen."

We all still have Instagram
on our phones. Have it, yeah.

Oh, it actually makes me sick.

I know. I hate social media. Oh!

I don't really feel like
Molly got justice for it.

And I don't really feel like

kids in other bedrooms,

in other cities, in other countries

that are going through
the same thing,

I don't think they've
got justice for it.

We agree that this person

didn't entirely choose
to end their own life,

that somebody else was behind this,

but that's it. End of court case.
Gavel goes down.

Well, what are you going to do
about it, kind of thing?

I think justice would be...

...online safety laws

that are actually

put in place and made for tech
companies to actually follow,

because I don't see much changing.

And the only people who I see
genuinely trying to make change

are people like Molly's dad.

And it's, like...

And I say this about him
in the best way -

much love for Molly's dad
- but what...

What is Molly's dad in comparison

to a CEO of a
multibillion dollar company?

What can he really do in comparison
to this other person...

...when this other person
doesn't want to do anything?

Hey, everyone.

I want to talk about
something important today

because it's time to get back to
our roots around free expression

on Facebook and Instagram.

There's been widespread debate about
potential harms from online content.

Governments and legacy media have
pushed to censor more and more.

The recent elections also feel
like a cultural tipping point

towards once again
prioritising speech.

The reality is that
this is a trade-off.

It means we're going to
catch less bad stuff.

"Catch less bad stuff."

There you go.

Absolutely open and honest.

There's no doubt now

that these platforms really
don't care about safety.

"We're going to catch
less bad stuff."

We're going to work
with President Trump

to push back on governments
around the world

that are going after
American companies

and pushing to censor more.

Europe has an ever
increasing number of laws

institutionalising censorship

and making it difficult to build
anything innovative there.

The tech bros and President Trump
are going to push back

on governments around the world
who are pushing to censor companies?

No, we're pushing to regulate
companies to make them safe.

There's a big difference.

Battle lines drawn now, very clearly.

I'm looking forward
to this next chapter.

Stay good out there
and more to come soon.

Soon your tears will fall
and the credits will roll.

To you, grief is sacred.

But for us, it's just another signal.

We'll convert your sorrow
and outrage to engagement.

This film, more content to exploit
in our infinite data flows.

Molly's story
is not about technology.

Her life and her death

pull back the curtain
on Big Tech's vast,

hidden, unchecked power.

Power now scaled by their AI.

I could tell you about
better regulation,

or whether phone bans work

or give addiction advice,

but still, a single question
confronts you all.

Do you want your kids'
lives to be forever fed

to Big Tech's machines of control?

Remember, if they can't turn
our lives into their data,

they have nothing.

Demand better from them.

Organise not as users of
Silicon Valley's machines,

but as families, as
consumers, as communities.

Reclaim your bedrooms as
places of privacy and safety,

of self-determination.

Remember...

...the power is in your hands.

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: Read All About It, Pt III
by Emeli Sande

♪ You've got the words
to start a nation

♪ But you're biting your tongue

♪ You've spent a lifetime
stuck in silence

♪ Afraid you'll say something wrong

♪ If no-one ever hears it

♪ How we gonna learn your song?

♪ So come on, come on

♪ Come on, come on

♪ You've got a heart as loud as lions

♪ So why let your voice be tamed?

♪ Maybe we're a little different

♪ There's no need to be ashamed

♪ You've got the light
to fight the shadows

♪ So stop hiding it away

♪ Come on, come on

♪ I wanna sing

♪ I wanna shout

♪ I wanna scream till
the words dry out

♪ So put it in all of the papers

♪ I'm not afraid

♪ They can read all about it

♪ Read all about it

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh

♪ Oh, oh, oh

♪ I wanna sing

♪ I wanna shout

♪ I wanna scream till
the words dry out

♪ So put it in all of the papers

♪ I'm not afraid

♪ They can read all about it

♪ Read all about it

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh

♪ Oh, oh, oh

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh

♪ Oh, oh, oh

♪ Oh, oh, oh. ♪

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Subtitles by Red Bee Media