New court documents allege that Meta shut down its own research project after the data suggested that quitting Facebook made people feel less anxious and depressed. The details surfaced in a legal filing released on Friday as part of a massive lawsuit against major tech companies.
The filing claims Meta started “Project Mercury” in 2019 to understand how its apps affect users’ daily lives and mental health. Researchers asked a random group of people to stop using Facebook and Instagram for a month. According to the lawsuit, the early results were clear: people who took a break from the platforms reported feeling less lonely, anxious, and depressed.
Rather than acting on these findings, the lawsuit argues that Meta hid them. The company allegedly never shared the results with the public and abruptly ended the research. The court documents quote an unnamed Meta employee who worried about the secrecy. The employee reportedly asked if hiding the data would make them look like tobacco companies that knew cigarettes were dangerous but kept quiet.
This filing is part of a larger legal battle involving school districts, parents, and state attorneys general. They are suing Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok, claiming these companies knew their platforms harmed children but lied to the public to protect their profits.
Meta strongly rejects this version of events. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone called the allegations misleading and said the plaintiffs are using “cherry-picked quotes.” Stone explained that the company halted the 2019 study because the methods were flawed, not because the results were damaging. He argued that the study showed only that people who already believed Facebook was bad for them felt better after stopping.
Google also pushed back, stating that the lawsuits misunderstand how YouTube works. A spokesperson said YouTube is a video streaming platform, not a social network for messaging friends.
