Molly vs. the Machines review – A powerful story about love, loss, and the dangers of social media | film

MOllie Russell was 14 years old when she took her own life in 2017 after months of viewing content related to self-harm and suicide on social media. Nearly a decade later, her best friends from school, interviewed for this documentary, are articulate, impressive women in their early twenties. Watching them, you can’t help but be shocked all over again by the terrible tragedy of Molly’s death and the loss of her family, who will never see the young woman that Molly will be now. Her father, Ian Russell, says life before Molly’s death was completely normal; In the years since, he has become a leading campaigner for better protection of children online.

The night Molly died, they sat together as a family in front of the television, Russell says. The last message Molly sent to her friend Neve was two laughing emojis. She was feeling depressed, but no one suspected how bad it was. They were not aware of the content being fed to Molly by the Instagram and Pinterest algorithms. In the months before her death, she received thousands of harmful posts on social media. Someone says: “Baby, I hate you. You’re weak. You deserve pain. You’ll never be good enough. I hope you die.” At the inquest into Molly’s death, Meta’s head of health and wellbeing policy, Elizabeth Laughon, told the court that the majority of posts Molly saw were “safe” for children. Nothing to see here.

Molly vs the Machines recreates moments from the investigation, which concluded that social media content contributed “more than a minimal amount” to Molly’s death. Director Mark Silver also talks to tech company whistleblowers. The film uses artificial intelligence to generate images and narration, which seems a bit strange.

Ultimately, it’s the interviews with those who loved Molly that give the film its power and nuance. Ian Russell talks about how his life was divided into two parts: before and after Molly’s death; One of her friends expresses her frustration at the lack of action to protect young people: “How many moles does it have to take?”

Molly vs the Machines opens at the Glasgow Film Festival and in UK cinemas on 1 March.