Meta is back in the headlines, again, for something absolutely no one is surprised by: allegedly halting internal research that suggested people who stop using Facebook and Instagram become less depressed, less anxious, and generally less existentially miserable. In other words: evidence that touching grass might actually work.
This revelation comes courtesy of a newly unredacted legal filing tied to a massive lawsuit involving school districts, parents, and state attorneys general. Basically, if you’ve ever worried that social media might be hurting kids, congratulations, you’re in good company, and also in this lawsuit.
Project Mercury: Meta’s Big “Let’s See How Bad It Really Is” Experiment
According to the filing, Meta launched something called Project Mercury in late 2019. The goal? To “explore the impact that our apps have on polarization, news consumption, well-being, and daily social interactions.”
Which is adorable, really. Meta investigating whether Meta is harmful is like a fox filing paperwork to study the effects of missing chickens.
The study reportedly involved a random group of users who bravely agreed to stop using Facebook and Instagram for a week or a month. The early findings? People who stopped using the apps reported lower depression, lower anxiety, lower loneliness, and lower social comparison, basically the wellness equivalent of a spa retreat, minus the cucumber water.
Apparently, Meta’s response to these findings was not, “Oh no, our product may be harming people, we must fix this. It was more like, “Let’s… not do this anymore.”
The lawsuit claims Meta simply pulled the plug and never disclosed the results. One unnamed employee even reportedly asked the internal question we were all thinking, “If these results are bad and we don’t publish and they leak, does it make us look like tobacco companies?”
Newsflash: Yes. Yes, it does.
Meta’s Official Response: “Cherry-Picked! Misleading! Fake News!”
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone leapt into action with a statement that had the exact energy of a parent insisting their kid didn’t break the vase, despite being surrounded by shards and guilt. “We strongly disagree with these allegations… cherry-picked quotes… misleading picture…” Classic.
Stone insisted Meta has spent “over a decade” listening to parents and protecting teens, which is an interesting interpretation of their timeline. He also reminded everyone about “Teen Accounts” and parental controls, which at this point feel like handing a Band-Aid to a person who just fell off a roof.
YouTube’s Turn: “This Has Nothing To Do With Us, Please Stop Saying ‘Social Media’ Like It’s One Thing”
Google’s YouTube spokesperson also entered the chat to clarify that YouTube is not even part of this conversation, thank you very much. “YouTube is a streaming service… not a social network… people mainly watch on TV…” Basically: “We are Netflix with comments. Please do not lump us in with Facebook.”
Sure, YouTube comments are often feral, but at least the app isn’t pretending to be your friend.
Snap and TikTok did not respond, presumably because their PR teams saw this mess and said, “Nope.”
The Study That Meta Says Was “Flawed” (Convenient Timing, Right?)
Stone insists the 2019 study was “flawed,” which just so happens to be something every company says about internal research that accidentally makes them look terrible. According to Stone, the research only proved that people who already believed Facebook was bad for them felt better when they stopped using it. Which is a fascinating spin.
It’s like saying: “People who think eating junk food is bad felt physically better when they stopped eating junk food. But that doesn’t prove anything.” Totally.
Stone also pointed out that this matches other academic “deactivation” research showing similar benefits.
So Meta’s defense is: “This doesn’t prove we’re harmful, there’s already plenty of other studies saying that.”
Nothing to See Here… Except All the Things to See Here
Meta insists it didn’t hide anything, didn’t mislead Congress, and didn’t bury research showing its platforms might worsen mental health.
And sure, maybe Project Mercury was flawed. Maybe everything is a big misunderstanding. Maybe everyone is just overreacting.
Or maybe, just maybe, turning off Facebook really does improve mood, reduce anxiety, and make people slightly less miserable.
But what do I know? I’m just repeating what Meta allegedly discovered… before allegedly shutting the whole thing down.
