Unredacted court filings in a lawsuit brought by US school districts claim Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, deliberately halted and buried internal research that found its products were causing harm to users’ mental health.

The 2020 Meta research project, code-named “Project Mercury,” in collaboration with survey firm Nielsen, measured the effects of Facebook users deactivating their accounts for a week.

The big picture: Internal documents revealed that participants who stopped using Facebook reported lower levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and negative social comparison. • Rather than publishing the study’s results or conducting further research, Meta ceased all work on the project, citing concerns about the impact of existing negative media narratives. •

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