"Sadly, Instagram censored me": Florence Pugh opens up about her feelings towards alleged sexual assault case at Cornell University

On September 30, 2026, Florence Pugh told The View that Instagram had restricted a post she wrote about an alleged sexual assault at Cornell University. As Vanity Fair reported, she published the statement after news of a civil lawsuit began to spread. She later described the warning label as another case of talk about sexual violence being limited.

A former student filed the suit in mid-September 2026. In the court papers, the student is listed as Jane Doe. According to The Cornell Daily Sun, she says that in 2024, when she was 20, she went to a party at the Chi Phi fraternity house. There, she was given ketamine and was sexually assaulted over several hours by seven men.

As The Cornell Daily Sun reported, the complaint says one of the men sent a Snapchat message to the fraternity group indicating a woman was available upstairs. After a university process, two of the students were expelled. The others received lighter penalties, including temporary suspensions, workshops, or essay assignments. No arrests followed that first review. On September 28, prosecutors reopened a criminal investigation into the men.

Florence Pugh posted an eight-slide carousel on Instagram on September 27. She told followers she felt uneasy, sick, and anxious about what she called a horrific act at Cornell in 2024. Florence Pugh wrote that colleges repeatedly fail women and that there is no equality until women can say they feel safe, and she asked people to be angry on their behalf.

After the post went up, Instagram placed a sensitive-content warning on it, blurring the slides and stopping some users from swiping through. Florence Pugh addressed that in a story and asked whether she was being censored for talking about rape. Vanity Fair reported that Meta later removed the label under a newsworthy allowance and said the original post was fully visible to adults.

On The View she said:

"I'm able to come here and talk about it in real life, even though, sadly, Instagram censored me when I said it, which is also just another shock that women are censored, even when they go through these things, they can't talk about it."

Florence Pugh on fear, the Cornell case, and East of Eden

In a conversation with Vanity Fair on September 30, Pugh said the allegations left her enraged and that she does not hold back when something does not sit right with her.

She noted that she had already been talking about rape while promoting Zoe Kazan's Netflix adaptation of East of Eden, in which she plays Cathy Ames, a character who experiences physical and sexual violence. She kept that role separate from the Cornell case.

"It sits in us daily, this percentage of fear that is living in our body just in case something happens. When a story like this pops up regarding men that have got off and are going into professions that are a part of our society, it is no surprise that it makes us feel unbelievably worried, unbelievably anxious. It makes us feel unsafe."

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Florence Pugh said she was glad the posts had been picked up elsewhere and that she wanted men to carry the conversation forward with the same urgency.

Her current press rounds are tied to East of Eden. Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three are among the films she is next set to appear in.

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