Court documents say Meta attempted to hide study that showed users were ‘less depressed’ after deleting Facebook
Damning details from a US court case have claimed to uncover a scandal that one employee likened to the tobacco industry.
Bombshell details from a US court case concerning Meta, the parent company to Facebook and Instagram, have revealed the tech giant halted internal studies examining Facebook’s impact on mental health, even after uncovering causal evidence that its platforms harmed users.
Unredacted filings in a case brought forward by US school districts describe a 2020 internal effort called “Project Mercury,” in which Meta (META. O) scientists partnered with Nielsen to assess the effects of temporarily “deactivating” Facebook.
But according to materials obtained during the discovery, the results were not what the company had hoped for.
Internal reports say that “people who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness and social comparison”.
Instead of sharing those results publicly or continuing the research, the filings say Meta cancelled additional work and internally claimed that the negative outcomes were skewed by the “existing media narrative” surrounding the platform.
In recent years, there has been a growing understanding that while social media is groundbreaking in its ability to connect the world together, it can also have disastrous effects on mental health, particularly in youth.
Behind the scenes, one staff member reportedly argued that the findings of the study were legitimate.
“The Nielsen study does show causal impact on social comparison,” the researcher wrote accompanied with an unhappy face emoji, according to the filing.
Another employee expressed concern that withholding unfavourable results would resemble the tobacco industry “doing research and knowing cigs were bad and then keeping that info to themselves.”
Despite its own internal data linking its products to adverse mental health effects, Meta told the US Congress it lacked a way to quantify potential harm to teenage girls.
In a statement issued Saturday, Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the study was discontinued due to flawed methodology, adding that the company has worked extensively to make its platforms safer.
“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,” he said.
The allegation that Meta buried evidence is only one part of a broader set of claims outlined in a late-Friday filing from Motley Rice, the law firm representing school districts suing Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat.
In a revealing text message in 2021, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that he wouldn’t say that child safety was his top concern “when I have a number of other areas I’m more focused on like building the metaverse.”
Mr Zuckerberg also shot down or ignored requests by Nick Clegg, Meta’s then-head of global public policy, to better fund child safety work.
Stone rejected these accusations, asserting that Meta’s teen safety measures are effective and that the company now removes accounts as soon as they are flagged for sex trafficking.
He said the lawsuit distorts Meta’s efforts to develop safety tools for parents and teens, calling its work “broadly effective.”
“We strongly disagree with these allegations, which rely on cherry-picked quotes and misinformed opinions in an attempt to present a deliberately misleading picture,” Meta said in a statement provided to news.com.au.
“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 – like introducing Teen Accounts with built-in protections and providing parents with controls to manage their teens’ experiences.
“We’re proud of the progress we’ve made and we stand by our record.”
The internal Meta materials referenced in the filing remain under seal, and Meta has sought to have them struck from the record.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for January 26 in the Northern District of California.
The new findings coincide with research from the e61 Institute that linked a dramatic decline in young Australians’ mental health with the rise of photo-and video-sharing platforms Instagram and Snapchat in the early 2010s.
The study shows that between 2011 and 2022, average self-reported mental health scores dropped 11 per cent for females aged 15–24 (from 73 per cent to 62 per cent) and 7 per cent for males the same age (from 74.5 per cent to 67.5 per cent).
Research director Dr Gianni La Cava said youth mental health had been stable before falling rapidly after 2012, coinciding with widespread adoption of these platforms. Although the findings do not prove causation, the timing suggests a possible link.
The decline was found to be most pronounced among young women, particularly Gen Z, who are the heaviest users of social media.
They report lower mental health than older women and all men, consistent with broader data showing higher rates of mental health disorders, increased need for professional support and rising hospitalisations.
Thoughts? alexander.blair@news.com.au
