American school districts have filed a class action lawsuit against “Meta” and other social media companies, accusing the company of disrupting an internal study it was conducting on the impact of its “Facebook” and “Instagram” platforms, after the study reached conclusive evidence proving that these platforms harm the mental health of users.
According to “Reuters,” the documents reveal the cooperation of “Meta” scientists with “Nielsen” in a research project called “Project Mercury” in 2020, aimed at measuring the impact of “Facebook and Instagram disruption.”
The documents revealed the company’s disappointment after it was found that “people who stopped using Facebook for a week reported decreased feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison.”
The lawsuit stated that “Instead of publishing these findings or pursuing additional research, Meta discontinued further work and internally announced that the negative study findings were mixed with an existing media narrative about the company.”
However, some employees privately confirmed to “Nick Clegg,” the then-head of global public policy at “Meta,” the validity of the research’s conclusions.
One employee said: “The Nielsen study does indeed show a causal effect on social comparison.”
Another employee expressed concern that covering up the negative results was similar to what tobacco companies do, “which conduct research, know cigarettes are harmful, and then keep that information to themselves.”
The lawsuit indicated that “Despite Meta’s own work documenting a causal relationship between its products and negative mental health effects, the company told Congress that it did not have the ability to determine whether its products were harmful to minor girls.”
In a statement issued on Saturday, company spokesman “Andy Stone” stated that the study was halted due to a flaw in its methodology and that the company is working hard to improve the safety of its products.
He added: “The full record will show that over more than a decade we have listened to parents, researched the most important issues, and made real changes to protect minors.”
It is worth noting that the claim of “Meta” concealing evidence related to the harms of social media platforms is just one claim among a series of claims made in a lawsuit filed by the law firm “Motley Rice” on Friday, which is the company that is suing “Meta,” “Google,” “TikTok,” and “Snapchat” on behalf of school districts across the United States.
The plaintiffs claimed that the companies deliberately concealed the risks they internally know about their products from users, parents, and teachers.
The charges against “Meta” and its competitors include tacitly encouraging children under the age of 13 to use their platforms, failing to address child abuse content, and seeking to expand the use of social media products by young minors while they are at school.
The plaintiffs also allege that the platforms attempted to pay organizations focused on children to defend the safety of their products in public.
