According to unredacted documents in a class action lawsuit filed by US school districts against Meta and other social media companies, Meta discontinued internal research into the mental health consequences of Facebook and Instagram after discovering causal evidence that its products negatively impacted users’ mental health.
According to Meta documents obtained through discovery, Meta scientists collaborated with survey company Nielsen on a 2020 study project code-named Project Mercury to assess the impact of deactivating Facebook and Instagram.
According to confidential papers, individuals who stopped using Facebook for a week reported feeling less depressed, anxious, lonely, and socially comparative, which disappointed the firm. According to the petition, Meta canceled future work and internally asserted that the unfavorable study results were tainted by the current media narrative surrounding the firm, instead of disclosing those findings or continuing further research.
However, employees privately reassured Nick Clegg, Meta’s head of worldwide public policy at the time, that the study’s findings were reliable.
According to an anonymous staff researcher, the Nielsen study did demonstrate a causal impact on social comparison (unhappy face emoji). Another employee was concerned that being silent about unfavorable results would be comparable to the tobacco industry conducting studies, knowing that cigarettes were harmful, and then keeping that information to themselves.
The petition claims that Meta told Congress that it was unable to determine if its products were detrimental to young girls, despite Meta’s own research showing a causal connection between its products and detrimental impacts on mental health.
Inadequate approach
Andy Stone, a spokesman for Meta, said in a statement that the study was halted due to flaws in its methodology and that it made a concerted effort to increase the safety of its products. “The complete record will demonstrate that for more than ten years, we have paid attention to parents, investigated the most important issues, and implemented significant changes to safeguard adolescents,” he stated.
In a late Friday filing, Motley Rice, a law firm suing Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat on behalf of school districts across the nation, made numerous accusations, including that Meta concealed evidence of social media harms. In general, the plaintiffs contend that the businesses have purposefully concealed from consumers, parents, and educators the risks associated with their products.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by TikTok, Google, or Snapchat.
The filing will be the subject of a hearing in the northern California district court on January 26.
SOURCE: DAWN NEWS
