Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok are joining forces in a new initiative called Thrive to combat the spread of suicide and self-harm content across their platforms. 

As Meta announced in a recent blog post, the program was developed in collaboration with the Mental Health Coalition and aims to facilitate data sharing among participating companies to swiftly identify and remove violating content.

Thrive operates through a shared database that allows the social media giants to exchange signals about content that violates their policies on suicide and self-harm. 

When such content is discovered on one platform, it’s assigned a unique identifier called a “hash” and flagged in the Thrive database.

Meta pointed out that Thrive targets content, not users, and doesn’t include identifiable information about accounts or individuals. The company is leveraging technology developed for the Tech Coalition’s Lantern program to ensure secure data sharing within Thrive.

“We’re prioritizing this content because of its propensity to spread across different platforms quickly,” Meta’s Global Head of Safety, Antigone Davis, wrote in the blog post.

From April to June, Meta reports removing 12 million pieces of content related to suicide and self-harm from Facebook and Instagram.

Meta has also announced additional measures to protect younger users, including removing and limiting “age-inappropriate” content from teenagers’ feeds and restricting search results related to suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders for all users.

Social Media’s Harmful Impact on Mental Health

The Thrive initiative arrives amid ongoing criticism of social media platforms for their content moderation practices, particularly regarding the content teenagers consume.

It also comes as mental health experts have warned that social media may pose a profound risk to teen well-being.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms due to their potential mental health impacts on young people.

While Thrive represents a collaborative effort to address these issues, Daniel Weiss of Common Sense Media suggests that the program’s impact remains uncertain without proper regulations. 

“Without proper regulatory guardrails, the jury is out on whether this will significantly impact the harms that kids and teens face online,” Weiss said in a statement.

All three participating companies have faced lawsuits alleging their platforms contributed to teen suicides. Earlier this year, lawmakers put major social media platforms on blast for failing to protect children and teens.

“We’ve known from the beginning that our efforts to protect children online would be met with hesitation from Big Tech,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Senator Lindsey Graham said in a press release. “They are finally being forced to acknowledge their failures when protecting kids.”