Meta allegedly concealed internal research showing that users who quit Facebook experienced measurable improvements in their mental health, according to newly unredacted court documents released as part of a major lawsuit filed by US school districts.
The company’s 2020 “deactivation study” reportedly found that people who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison compared to those who continued their usual use.
Rather than expanding the study or alerting the public, the filings claim Meta shut the project down and dismissed the results as being influenced by negative media coverage.
The lawsuit accuses Meta and other social media platforms of harming young users by fostering addiction and mental distress, and alleges the company later misled Congress about what it knew regarding those effects.
Meta allegedly concealed internal research showing that users who quit Facebook experienced measurable improvements in their mental health, according to newly unredacted court documents released as part of a major lawsuit filed by US school districts. The company’s 2020 “deactivation study” reportedly found that people who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison compared to those who continued their usual use. Rather than expanding the study or alerting the public, the filings claim Meta shut the project down and dismissed the results as being influenced by negative media coverage.
The lawsuit accuses Meta and other social media platforms of harming young users by fostering addiction and mental distress, and alleges the company later misled Congress about what it knew regarding those effects. The filings add to months of heightened scrutiny for Meta, which recently introduced new parental controls for teen accounts and faced an unsuccessful antitrust challenge from the US Federal Trade Commission. A federal judge ruled last week that regulators failed to prove Meta currently holds monopoly power in social networking.
The filings add to months of heightened scrutiny for Meta, which recently introduced new parental controls for teen accounts and faced an unsuccessful antitrust challenge from the US Federal Trade Commission. A federal judge ruled last week that regulators failed to prove Meta currently holds monopoly power in social networking.
Image credit: Dima Solomin
