Meta halted internal research after mental health red flags reports, court filings

Meta shut down its own internal research after finding clear evidence that Facebook and Instagram were hurting users, according to filings from a class-action case brought by U.S. school districts.

The documents say Meta ran a 2020 experiment called Project Mercury, where the company hired Nielsen to study what happened when people deactivated both apps for a week.

The results allegedly showed people felt less depressed, less anxious, less lonely, and didn’t compare themselves to others as much. Instead of expanding the work, Meta canceled the research and said the results were shaped by an “existing media narrative.”

Inside the company, though, workers admitted the findings were real. One researcher reportedly told Nick Clegg, Meta’s global policy chief at the time, “The Nielsen study does show causal impact on social comparison,” adding an unhappy emoji.

Another worker compared the silence to cigarette companies “doing research and knowing cigs were bad and then keeping that info to themselves.”

The filings say Meta still told Congress it had no way to measure whether its products hurt teen girls, even though it had already documented a direct link.

When asked about the shutdown, Andy Stone, Meta’s spokesman, said the study was stopped because of flawed methodology and insisted the company had spent years improving teen 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,” Andy said.

Plaintiffs are accusing Meta of hiding risks and pushing harmful design choices via its platforms

The lawsuit, filed by Motley Rice on behalf of school districts across the country, accuses Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and Google of hiding known dangers from parents, students, and teachers.

The filing says the companies encouraged kids under 13 to use their platforms, failed to properly address child sexual abuse content, and tried to increase teen usage during school hours.

The case also claims the companies attempted to win over child-oriented groups by offering them financial support.

One example in the filing involves TikTok sponsoring the National PTA and then bragging that the group would “do whatever we want going forward in the fall… they’ll announce things publicly… their CEO will do press statements for us.”

The allegations against Meta are more detailed than those against the other platforms. Internal documents cited in the filing say the company designed its teen safety tools to be weak and rarely used, and blocked tests for stronger features because they might affect growth.

One document says Meta allowed users to attempt sex trafficking 17 times before removing them, calling it a “very, very, very high strike threshold.”

Papers in the case say Meta knew that boosting teen engagement meant showing more harmful material but kept pushing the strategy.

Meta is also accused of delaying efforts to stop child predators from contacting minors for several years. Safety staff were reportedly told to circulate arguments defending Meta’s decision not to take action.

The filings also include a 2021 text message from Mark Zuckerberg, where he said he would not claim child safety was his biggest concern because he had “a number of other areas I’m more focused on like building the metaverse.”

Clegg reportedly asked Mark for more resources for safety work, but nothing changed.

Andy disputed the accusations, saying Meta removes accounts as soon as they are flagged for sex trafficking and that the company’s systems for teens and parents work.

He said the claims in the lawsuit twist Meta’s actions and rely on “cherry-picked quotes and misinformed opinions.” None of the underlying Meta documents are public yet.

Meta filed a motion to strike them, arguing the request to unseal them is too broad. The case is moving ahead, and a hearing on the filing is set for January 26 in Northern California District Court.

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