Meta allegedly buried internal research showing Facebook users became less depressed and anxious after quitting the platform, according to newly unredacted court documents released Friday. The bombshell revelation comes from Project Mercury, a 2019 study the company quietly shelved when initial results suggested its apps harm mental health.
The social media giant finds itself in the crosshairs of a potentially devastating legal battle after court documents filed in the Northern District of California exposed what plaintiffs describe as a deliberate cover-up of harmful research findings.
Project Mercury launched in late 2019 with Meta's stated goal to "explore the impact that our apps have on polarization, news consumption, well-being, and daily social interactions." But when the study's initial results showed people who stopped using Facebook "for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison," the company allegedly pulled the plug rather than sound any alarms.
The timing couldn't be worse for Meta. The company is already facing a sprawling multidistrict lawsuit from school districts, parents, and state attorneys general targeting not just Meta but also Google's YouTube, Snap, and TikTok. These plaintiffs claim social media companies knowingly caused mental health harm to children and young adults while misleading educators and authorities about the risks.
"The company never publicly disclosed the results of its deactivation study," the lawsuit states bluntly. "Instead, Meta lied to Congress about what it knew." The accusation carries particular weight given Mark Zuckerberg's repeated congressional testimony about the company's commitment to user safety and well-being.
Perhaps most damning is an unnamed Meta employee's internal comment captured in the filing: "If the results are bad and we don't publish and they leak, is it going to look like tobacco companies doing research and knowing cigs were bad and then keeping that info to themselves?" The comparison to Big Tobacco's decades-long suppression of cancer research isn't subtle.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone fired back hard against the allegations in a series of social media posts, calling the lawsuit's characterization "deliberately misleading." Stone argued the 2019 study was fundamentally flawed, claiming it only showed that "people who believed using Facebook was bad for them felt better when they stopped using it."