Social Media on Trial
Social media can have fatal consequences. Their damaging impact on young people’s mental health is now well established, yet the business logic of algorithmic capitalism and the surveillance economy continues to obstruct meaningful regulation. With the backing of civil society, governments in more than a hundred countries are seeking ways to better protect children online. Tech companies, armed with vast resources, still refuse to accept responsibility. Is it time to shift the struggle onto legal ground?
In the presence of the film team.
Laure Boutron-Marmion
Lawyer, founder of the Algos Victima collective
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Adele Walton
Journalist, Online Safety Campaigner
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Ian Russell
Protagonist of Molly vs the Machines
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The discussion is interpreted in English and French
Molly vs the Machines
In 2017, Molly Russell, aged fourteen, took her own life after being exposed to harmful online content. Her father subsequently embarked on a five-year legal battle to establish the responsibility of digital platforms in his daughter’s death. Through intimate interviews with the family, reconstructed courtroom scenes, and unprecedented access to whistle-blowers within the technology industry, the film reveals how platforms designed to connect us had become harmful environments for a vulnerable teenager – and how this tragedy ultimately led her father to launch a campaign demanding safer digital spaces.
⚠︎ This film contains disturbing narratives that may be sensitive to some viewers.
Special screening organised with the Ville de Lancy on 31.03.26.
Storyboard Studios
Marc Silver Ltd
Marc Silver
