The study used wellbeing data from nearly a million people across 72 countries over 12 years and also harnessed individual usage data from millions of Facebook users worldwide.

“Although reports of negative psychological outcomes associated with social media are common in academic and popular writing, evidence for harms is, on balance, more speculative than conclusive,” the research paper states.

In 2017, Facebook’s director of research at the time admitted that there was evidence to suggest that scrolling through posts without interacting can leave users feeling low in mood.

But according to Professor Andrew Przybylski, leader of the new study, “the best available data” does not support the idea that Facebook membership is related to harm. “In fact, our analysis indicates Facebook is possibly related to positive wellbeing.”

“This is not to say this is evidence that Facebook is good for the wellbeing of users. Rather, the best global data does not support...