Florence Pugh Calls Out Instagram for Putting Disclaimer on Her Post About Cornell Sexual Assault Situation

Florence Pugh is alleging that Instagram has restricted one of her posts about a sexual assault case involving Cornell University.

In the post, from Sunday, September 27, the 30-year-old actress expressed support for a former student whose lawsuit alleges she was drugged and assaulted at a fraternity party, then said the platform had partially taken it down.

"Am I being censored for talking about r---?" Pugh wrote in her response.

"Instagram decided to block my post from getting in front of the right people," she wrote in a new post with the same slides with text as her original. "Tut tut tut. Oh dear. That doesn’t look great does it? Here’s another go at it in case you were one of those people that can no longer see my post."

Pugh posted a long letter in response to the case, which has received national news coverage. According to her, reading the allegations left her feeling "uneasy and sick and anxious." She asked whether men can be equally disgusted by sexual violence as women are, calling for more accountability for men accused of committing sexual crimes.

"This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us," Pugh wrote in one slide from her post. "You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behavior as much as we are. How can you expect us to trust that it's 'not all men' when in moments like this, many of you stay quiet?"

The actress was strong in her criticism of institutions she feels repeatedly fail to protect women, describing the alleged assault as "the killing of a soul." She concluded her post by saying she wants people to be outraged on behalf of survivors, and expressed support for those at Cornell she said are advocating for the woman involved in the case.

Hours later, Pugh returned to social media to say it had become difficult to get to her post. She told followers that neither she nor many of them could see it, and wondered why it would be blocked.

As she continued to press the point, Pugh said part of the post appeared to have been taken down, with some users able to view only a content warning and others unable to swipe through all of the slides.

"Another lovely lesson to teach people that if you speak up about it, we will silence you," she wrote, later adding, "Instagram, at least we can see what side you're on. Don't protect rapists." Instagram has yet to offer a statement about the situation.

Pugh is referencing a civil lawsuit filed in early September in New York. The complaint, brought by a former student identified only as Jane Doe, alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted by members of a fraternity during a party in Ithaca in October 2024. The suit lists several men as defendants and makes claims about how Cornell handled the situation.

While two students were expelled and the others suspended with essay writing punishments, none of the participants were indicted or found legally responsible.

The allegations remain unsubstantiated, without any criminal charges formally filed against the fraternity. Cornell has said the allegations were investigated and adjudicated under its policies and that it will respond through the legal process.

Pugh's involvement has further increased visibility into an already highly publicized case and sparked conversation about how social networks approach some discussions of sexual violence. Many of her millions of followers responded with the same question she raised about why her post was limited.

Her response is consistent with past actions where she has used her platform to address social issues and push back when she felt her words or images were mishandled online. Whether Instagram's limitation was caused by automation or something else remains unclear, but Pugh's reaction has made sure that both the case and her support for the woman at the heart of it have gotten widespread exposure.

However, there doesn't appear to be any kind of resolution that will satisfy all parties in the future for this case just yet.