Overview
- Newly released court documents describe Project Mercury, a 2020 experiment in which participants who paused Facebook and Instagram for a week reported lower depression, anxiety, loneliness and social comparison.
- Plaintiffs say Meta ended the project and did not publish the results, while Meta says the work was stopped because of methodological problems.
- The filings are part of a class action by U.S. school districts targeting Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat over allegedly neglecting youth safety to protect user growth.
- Plaintiffs cite internal materials alleging safety features were designed or allowed to remain ineffective, including an account removed only after 17 confirmed grooming attempts.
- The documents also attribute a claim that Mark Zuckerberg prioritized the metaverse over child safety, which Meta calls an out-of-context characterization and says its safety measures are effective.