Today, The Tech Oversight Project issued the following statement after new reporting from the Washington Post proved that Meta has been suppressing damning child safety research on the Metaverse for years – raising fresh questions about their platforms’ practices and Meta’s culture of lawbreaking. Meta systematically concealed data by having lawyers instruct researchers to run “sensitive” studies under attorney–client privilege, avoiding words like “illegal” or “violates the law,” reframing surveys so kids wouldn’t disclose harms, and stopping data collection that shows children under 10 were in the Metaverse – a likely COPPA violation.
“To be crystal clear: Meta ordered its researchers to delete evidence that the company was breaking the law and willfully endangering minors. That’s not just deeply disturbing, it’s cause for a deep investigation into Mark Zuckerberg’s leadership and the toxic culture within Meta that encourages senior leaders to break the law,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of The Tech Oversight Project. “If they lied about the Metaverse, they are lying to us right now about the harms at hand.”