[Zuckerbuck$...] Molly Russell's tragic death exposes cash-over-care mindset of ruthless tech giants that must be punished for their complacency

https://nypost.com/2022/10/10/molly-russells-tragic-death-exposes-the-
cash-over-care-mindset-of-ruthless-tech-giants/

In fact, both those numbers have at times been significantly higher, 
suggesting some people have either regretted denoting their enthusiasm for 
my apparent desire to end my life, or been urged to do so by a concerned 
Twitter.

My old tweet regularly pops up to go viral again when I am involved in a 
controversial furor, and those who object to my views, often boasting the 
hashtag #BeKind in their social media biographies, wish to remind me of 
what thought process I should be considering.

This in turn prompts Twitter to send me the message of support, which 
continues: “In difficult times and when you need someone to talk to, it 
may help to speak to professionals who can assist you in coping with your 
current circumstances. If you are having thoughts of self-harm, suicide, 
or depression, we encourage you to please reach out to someone and request 
help. Please know that there are people out there who care about you, and 
that you are not alone. Take care, Twitter.”

Of course, I never had any intention of taking my own life.

My tweet was a joke, albeit one delivered with very real raw emotion at 
the time.

But what if I were feeling suicidal?

More pertinently, what if I were a suicidal teenager without a high 
profile to ensure people saw my posts or engagement?

What actual support would tech giants give me then to help dissuade me 
from such thoughts?

Sadly, we got the grim, tragic, horrifying answer in a London coroner’s 
courtroom last week in a case that should shock every parent to the very 
core of their being and make every tech firm executive stare deep into 
their soul.

As The Post reported, the coroner directly blamed social media for the 
suicide of a depressed 14-year-old British girl, Molly Russell, who was 
bombarded with messages and images promoting self-harm from Instagram and 
Pinterest’s artificial intelligence algorithms.

She was constantly directed, via emails and messages to her feeds, to 
dark, disturbing content that actively fueled her despair.

Her distraught father, Ian Russell, said that Molly, who was once “full of 
love and bubbling with excitement for what should have lay ahead in her 
life,” had been “pushed into a rabbit hole” of depressive content and “the 
bleakest of worlds.”

From the moment she first engaged with posts about depression and self-
harm, the poor girl became victim to a relentless assault on her 
vulnerable senses that eventually helped drive her to kill herself.

“Everyone is better off without me,” she tweeted just four months before 
she died. “I don’t fit in this world.”

Staggeringly and shamefully, even after Molly took her life, one social 
media platform emailed her to point her to suicide-themed messages, 
including a picture of a girl’s cut thigh captioned, “I can’t tell you how 
many times I wish I was dead.”

Ian Russell, who monitored his daughter’s email account following her 
death, was appalled to see subject lines like “10 depression pins you 
might like” flood into her inbox.

And coroner Andrew Walker was scathing in his verdict, concluding that 
Molly “died from an act of self-harm whilst suffering from depression and 
the negative effects of online content … the platforms operated in such a 
way, using algorithms, as to result in binge periods of images provided 
without Molly requesting them. It is likely that the material viewed by 
Molly … contributed to her death in a more than minimal way.”

This is the first time in the world that a court has ruled that a death 
was caused by social media.

As the father of a girl who just got her first phone, albeit with zero 
access to any apps and subject to draconian parental review, this dreadful 
case rendered me simultaneously shocked, heartbroken and enraged.

And it must act as not just a massive wake-up call to a woefully 
complacent social media industry but also to equally complacent 
governments that have been disgracefully lax in ordering tech firms to 
enforce proper safety regulations.

As William, the new Prince of Wales, said in a statement: “No parent 
should ever have to endure what Ian Russell and his family have been 
through. Online safety for our children and young people needs to be a 
prerequisite, not an afterthought.”

The bottom line is that Molly Russell should have never been able to see 
the horrific content that aggravated her suicidal thoughts. The fact that 
she was deliberately targeted with it by robotic social media firm systems 
exploiting her interest in the deadly subject matter is even more 
disgraceful.

The New York Times reported that some of the material Molly viewed was so 
awful, one courtroom worker left the room to avoid having to see it. And a 
child psychologist expert witness said it was so “disturbing” that it 
caused him to lose sleep for weeks.

Yet executives from Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, admitted to 
the court they hadn’t studied the impact of such suicidal and depressive 
content on its youngest users.

How can that be for such rich, influential, powerful companies with such 
advanced technology?

The only explanation is that they didn’t care enough in their pursuit of 
money.

 And as a result, Molly Russell is dead.

 In the six months before she died, she looked at 2,100 pieces of content 
on Instagram alone that related to suicide, self-harm and depression.

But Meta defended its processes as maintaining a balance between free 
expression and safety.

As Ian Russell retorted: “If this demented trail of life-sucking content 
was safe, my daughter Molly would probably still be alive.”

Yes — she would.

Now that a court has ruled that social media led to a young girl’s death, 
surely we will see long-overdue legal floodgates open against giant tech 
firms for putting cash before care, and inevitable legislative reform to 
stop this merciless exploitation of impressionable young minds?

They need to show the same speedy, diligent empathy and support to teenage 
kids wanting to kill themselves that they show to TV presenters upset at 
footballers leaving their clubs.

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental 
health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for 
free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five 
boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 
or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.


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President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed 
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