A peek inside the chilling Free Mackenzie Shirilla Facebook pages after Netflix’s The Crash

Social media played a major part in Netflix’s The Crash, and now, even after Mackenzie Shirilla was locked up for her crimes, sites like Facebook and TikTok are still bustling with her defenders.

In the new Netflix doc, we got a brief look at social media after Mackenzie’s arrest, trial, and sentencing. She seemingly has an army of loyal supporters, one of whom said she was “too hot” to be in prison.

Smiling, her mum said in The Crash: “There’s the Free Mackenzie Facebook pages that somebody started. Thank you again, whoever all these people are.”

But does Mackenzie Shirilla genuinely have that much support on social media? I did a deep dive.

There are numerous Free Mackenzie Shirilla Facebook pages

A quick look at Facebook showed that there are quite a few pages and groups in support of Mackenzie Shirilla. The most popular has over 20k members.

“A girl who was 17 at the time of a horrible accident. Convicted of double murder and sentenced 15 years to life with no real proof. She deserves a retrial,” the page’s bio reads.

The cover photo is seemingly an AI-generated logo of “Free Mackenzie” alongside a neon-lit American bald eagle. Meanwhile, the profile picture is Mackenzie’s Prada slipper that got stuck to the floor.

What does the page actually post?

Posts on the Free Mackenzie Shirilla Facebook page are quite repetitive, with the admin reposting pretty much anything somewhat positive about the jailed killer. Outside of reposts, which make up a sort of bank of support, the entries are usually quotes about hardship, screenshots of court documents, links to YouTube, and social media screenshots

Ahead of the Netflix release, the page posted: “The Netflix Documentary is coming out tomorrow and we hope they tell the true facts of this case. Please share our page link everywhere so everyone can see. We get why people feel the way they do, they don’t know the full story.

“Recognising that this wasn’t murder doesn’t take away from the pain of their loss. Both of those can be true and are. Share share share and as always we appreciate all of you and the support you’ve shown. Please tag our page everywhere you can.”

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Credit: Netflix

Who runs the Facebook page?

Though it’s not clear who actually runs the most popular Free Mackenzie Shirilla Facebook page, the platform is also on YouTube and Instagram.

On Insta, the bio reads: “All social media managed by Mackenzie’s support team.”

That, paired with the “share share share” from other statements, makes it seem as though it’s Mackenzie’s family running the page. In the doc, they similarly said they would “fight fight fight” the conviction.

What are people saying about the group?

As you might expect, there are quite a lot of people pushing back against the idea of Mackenzie Shirilla being innocent. Unexpectedly, there’s also a lot of support for her.

One person wrote: “This page has brought light to a dark situation. I hope one day justice is served, and she, at the very least, gets let out. This week or so has been crazy, it’s all I see is people making posts about her I have gone and spread the message that she’s innocent, as I deeply believe she is, whether it’s a medical mystery or Dom grabbing the wheel or her slipper simply getting stuck, there are far too many possibilities. I think slowly, the non-believers are starting to see. Justice for Mackenzie Shirilla.”

“If Mackenzie were captain of the cheer team or Miss Ohio or any other ‘good’ all-American girl, would we have seen a murder charge stick then? I don’t think so…perception is everything, and it shouldn’t be…stick to the facts!” another said.

Someone else added: “If she died, they would have probably never blamed her. They always gotta blame someone, and sadly, it’s her only bc she survived. Her mouth doesn’t help her case, but she’s still a child. It’s sad altogether.”

One thing is for certain: It’s not over.

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Featured image credit: Netflix/Facebook