Florence Pugh speaks out after Instagram takes down post about alleged Cornell rape case

Florence Pugh has claimed that she is being 'silenced' on social media after sharing an impassioned post about an alleged sexual assault at Cornell University.

The Oxford-born actress, 30, spoke out in support of the 'unbelievably powerful' woman who filed a lawsuit claiming she was drugged and gang raped at a frat party in October 2024.

But she has now questioned whether she is being 'censored for talking about rape' after people reported that they were unable to see her post.

Pugh shared a statement on Instagram on Sunday (27 September) which called out Cornell University for its handling of the alleged incident two years ago.

A 20-year-old student, identified only as Jane Doe, has alleged that she was sexually assaulted over a period of several hours while attending a Chi Pi frat party.

A lawsuit has been filed against Cornell University and several students (Matt Burkhartt/Getty Images)

The alleged victim has now filed a lawsuit against the Ivy League university that is located in Ithaca, New York, and the fraternity members, claiming that they failed to protect her and prevent the alleged assault.

A lawyer for the woman has claimed that only two of the alleged attackers were expelled and that no arrests were made - while the others got lesser punishments, such as short suspensions or having to write essays.

Cornell issued a statement earlier this month insisting it 'takes sexual violence extremely seriously', which read: "The Presidential Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault was launched shortly after this incident and issued a report in March 2026. Several of the recommendations have already been implemented, while others are in development with oversight by a university implementation committee."

The university said its civil rights and student conduct office launched an investigation into the allegations and that the Xi chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity 'remains barred'.

'This is unacceptable'

Pugh shared a moving message on Instagram in regards to the claims made in the lawsuit, saying that it left her feeling 'uneasy and sick and anxious', while describing the situation as a 'human issue, not a women’s issue'.

"This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us," the Dune star said.

"You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour 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? "A drugged gang rape takes action and conversations. It immediately makes me wonder - had it been in the works for a while?"

She went on to brand the alleged perpetrators as 'sick, cowardly and cold', while adding: "This is a killing of a soul. Destroying of a body and killing of a soul. And they’ve been let off?

Pugh claims she was 'censored' after sharing a statement about the alleged incident (Dominik Bindl/Getty Images)

"All it takes is write a quick ‘I’m so sorry I raped a girl while she was drugged with my friends, we thought it would be fine?’ essay and you’re good to go! This is unacceptable."

Pugh said she was 'enraged by schools protecting boys', while ending with the plea: "We are the life force of this earth, start ****ing protecting us. Be angry for us. Please."

A few hours later, the screen star returned to Instagram to share a series of posts to her Stories after she was informed by some of her 10.7 million followers that they could not see her statement.

"Rather worryingly, neither l or some of my followers can access the recent post that I wrote about the Cornell College sexual abuse," she wrote.

"Why is that? Has it been taken down for others? Am I being censored for talking about rape?"

She returned to the social media platform to update her fans a few hours later (Instagram/@florencepugh)

She then shared another which stated her post had 'been partially taken down', that continued: "Some people can only see the trigger warning and some people can't swipe. Great!

"Another lovely lesson to teach people that if you speak up about it, we will silence you! Good job I saved it. I'll give it another go."

Pugh claimed she then tried to repost her statement and that Instagram was 'blocking me from reaching people'.

"Instagram, at least we can see what side you're on," the actress said. "Don't protect rapists. It's pathetic behaviour."

LADbible has contacted Meta, Instagram's parent company, for comment.