300 Scientists Wrote an Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Asking for Permission to Investigate Its Social Media

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“We have only a fragmented picture of the studies your companies are conducting,” the letter to Zuckerberg says. “We do not believe that the methodologies seen so far meet the high scientific standards required to responsibly investigate the mental health of children and adolescents.”

It continues: “You and your organizations have an ethical and moral obligation to align your internal research on children and adolescents with established standards for evidence in mental health science.”

The letter says Meta can commit to safeguarding teen mental health by introducing “gold standard transparency”. This allows outside researchers to participate in its research, adding that Meta can participate in external studies globally, offering up its data voluntarily. 

“Combining Meta Inc. data with large-scale cohort projects will materially advance how we understand implications of the online world for mental health,” the letter says.

The letter concluded by asking Meta to form an independent oversight trust that would study and monitor teens’ and childs’ mental health. The structure of the proposed trust is similar to the Oversight Board model of Meta.