Meta accused of halting research on social media’s mental health risks
Newly unsealed U.S. court filings allege Meta stopped internal research after finding indications that reduced use of Facebook was linked to improved mental health, Qazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
U.S. school districts suing Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat claim Meta ended a 2020 project that evaluated how stepping away from Facebook affected users’ well-being. According to filings submitted late Friday, internal documents show Meta researchers collaborated with Nielsen to study the impact of temporarily deactivating accounts.
The filings state that participants who avoided Facebook for a week reported lower levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison. The documents further claim Meta chose not to continue the project and internally questioned the findings, while some staff argued the results were credible.
The suit alleges Meta told U.S. lawmakers it had no way to determine whether its platforms caused harm to teenagers, despite the company’s own internal assessments. It also claims Meta did not disclose risks it had identified, encouraged wider youth use, and delayed certain child-safety measures over concerns about user growth.
Among the additional allegations are claims that Meta limited testing of safety tools, managed reports of harmful activity with high removal thresholds and postponed improvements aimed at restricting contact between adults and minors. The filings also reference internal conversations regarding resource allocation for safety programs.
A Meta spokesperson said the study had methodological flaws and that the company has invested in efforts to support teen safety for more than a decade. He rejected the broader allegations, saying they relied on selective excerpts and did not reflect Meta’s overall policies. The underlying documents cited in the suit remain sealed pending a court decision.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for January 26 in the Northern District of California. TikTok, Google, and Snapchat had no immediate comment on the filing.
Earlier, Qazinform reported that Meta rolled out a new “Ghost Posts” feature on its Threads app, allowing users to publish posts that automatically disappear after 24 hours.