Meta shut down internal research after finding mental health harm from Facebook, court filing claims: What the company said

A claim filed in a class-action lawsuit against Meta alleges that the company shut down internal research after finding causal evidence that its products, Facebook, were causing mental health problems to users. The allegation comes from unredacted filings submitted by US school districts suing Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat, news agency Reuters reported, adding that the plaintiffs argue the tech giants intentionally concealed internally recognized risks from users, parents and educators.The core of the claim revolves around a 2020 internal research project code-named “Project Mercury.” Meta scientists, working with the survey firm Nielsen, studied the effects of “deactivating” Facebook use. According to internal documents cited in the filing, the results were highly unfavourable: “people who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness and social comparison.” Rather than publicising the findings or continuing the study, the filing alleges Meta terminated further work and internally dismissed the negative results, claiming they were tainted by the existing “media narrative” around the company. One staffer allegedly expressed concern that burying the findings was akin to the tobacco industry “doing research and knowing cigs were bad and then keeping that info to themselves.”In a statement released on Saturday (November 22), Meta spokesman Andy Stone defended the company, asserting that the study was stopped because its methodology was flawed, and that Meta works diligently to improve product safety.“The full record will show that for over a decade, we have listened to parents, researched issues that matter most, and made real changes to protect teens,” Stone said.He noted that the company’s teen safety measures are effective, adding that the company has a policy is to remove accounts as soon as they are flagged.