Court filing shows Meta discussed 'whisper strategy' against Jonathan Haidt

Gelman says Facebook never hired him for a ‘hit job’ on Haidt

Court documents filed in the United States show that employees of Meta, the parent group of Facebook and Instagram, discussed a “whisper strategy” to get the academic community to disavow Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist whose book The Anxious Generation helped tip the debate about online safety toward more stringent measures such as the under-16 ban in Australia. The discussions appear in minutes of internal meetings disclosed in a recent legal filing, part of litigation brought by school districts suing the company.

A document titled “Well-being Meeting Sound-check Notes” refers to discussions of how Meta could “turn other academics against Haidt” and to a “whisper strategy” aimed at achieving that goal. It also mentions “debunking” his work.

Minutes from a meeting on 8 March 2023 reference “Curtiss” — an apparent reference to Meta’s then vice-president of research, Curtiss Cobb. They state: “Curtiss’s goal for this work: how do we get the academic community to disavow Haidt. Can’t co-opt them, so how do we enrage them … so the media finds him not credible.” The minutes add: “Not thinking about this as a loud strategy. A below-the-line campaign.”

The document suggests getting someone called “Gellman” to write “a takedown piece.” The figure is not identified in the document, but Andrew Gelman — a professor of statistics and political science at Columbia University who has been critical of Haidt’s work — wrote in a blogpost this week that he was “never hired by Facebook to do a hit job on Jonathan Haidt.” Gelman said he had received money from Mark Zuckerberg’s company in the past on a “no-strings” basis but had never been asked by Meta to look at social media’s impact on teenagers’ health.

Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation argued that widespread use of smartphones has caused a mental health crisis for young people. The academic has become a persuasive advocate for strict regulation of digital media and devices, including bans on social media for under-16s and on smartphones in schools.

The book helped tip the debate about online safety toward more stringent measures such as the under-16 ban in Australia. Early this year the then health secretary, Wes Streeting, asked Haidt to address officials on a possible social media ban for under-16s in the UK.

The minutes were produced before Haidt published his book in 2024 and discuss responding to a Substack post written by the academic in which he reviews “a bunch of articles.” It is not clear whether Meta acted on the ideas outlined in the minutes.

In a statement to the tech news website The Verge, Haidt said he was “not surprised” by the discussions, which were revealed in a court filing as part of litigation brought by school districts suing the company. “When companies can’t dispute the evidence, they go after the messenger,” he said. Meta has been approached for comment.