Meta Staff Notes Discussed a ‘Whisper Strategy’ Against Jonathan Haidt

Notes from Meta meetings in March 2023 show staff discussing how to “turn academics against Haidt”, meaning Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist who blames social media for rising anxiety and depression among teenagers. The notes, headed “Well-being Meeting Sound-check Notes”, were filed in public on 23 October as Exhibit E in the large US federal case over social media and young people’s mental health.

It is not clear whether Meta acted on any of the ideas. The notes are short bullet points, full of typos, and read like a brainstorm. Meta did not immediately comment, The Verge reported.

What the notes say

The entries about Haidt cover meetings on 7 and 8 March 2023, about a month after Haidt started a Substack newsletter. Under 7 March, one bullet says the team was “getting inundated” with requests and asks “how do we respond to the Heidt substack post”, calling it “a P0”, or top priority. Another reads: “turn other academics against Haidt – lot of strong methodologists to say things more forcefully”.

The same entry links the issue to the lawsuits: “Long term and short term game. – Multi district litigation is next 2 yrs and his arguments will be featured there.” A later bullet reads “Whisper strategy – turn academics against Haidt, why shoiuild this be the strategy”, with the typo in the original. The notes also list a “Media and academic elite facing strategy, have that percolate into the media.”

The 8 March entry sets out “Curtiss’ goal for this work: how do we get the academic community to disavow Haidt.” The Verge says this appears to refer to Curtiss Cobb, then Meta’s vice-president of research. Underneath it says: “Can’t co-opt them, so how do we enrage them.” The group described “a Below-the-line campaign”, not “a loud strategy”, and listed as one idea: “Get Gellman to write a take-down piece.”

Not everyone in the room agreed. One line says stakeholders were “not aligned”, another asks “What are we actually trying to accomplish here?”, and one participant warned that undermining Haidt “does nto go far enough”.

How the notes reached the public

The notes came out in a fight over legal privilege. In a reply filed in the case, lawyers for the young people and school districts suing Meta said the company had withdrawn or narrowed its privilege claims on “well over 50%” of 300 priority documents. They said Exhibit E had been held back “even though they consist mainly of public relations planning” and cited it as evidence of “Meta’s efforts to discredit outside experts”. They asked the court to order Meta to re-review about 175,000 withheld or redacted documents by 30 November and to appoint a special master. Under a sealing agreement filed on 23 October, Meta asked only to black out the names and email addresses of junior staff.

The academic named ‘Gellman’

The Verge suggested the “Gellman” in the notes might be Andrew Gelman, a statistics professor at Columbia University who had criticised Haidt’s work on his blog. Gelman answered on that blog on 27 October: “I’ve never been contacted by anyone at Facebook or Meta regarding Jonathan Haidt or his work.” He called the revelation “absolutely horrible” and guessed the idea “never made it out of the conference room. Or else they approached a different person, maybe someone actually named Gellman.” He also disclosed that Facebook gave his research a no-strings $25,000 donation in 2016.

Haidt told The Verge he was “not surprised”, adding: “When companies can’t dispute the evidence, they go after the messenger.” He told the New York Post that Meta seemed “determined to keep the truth from coming out, even within its own walls”. The Post said Meta did not return a request for comment.

Why a brainstorm still matters for Meta

On their own, the notes prove little about what Meta did. Nobody in them commits to a plan, the participants disagree, and the one academic they name says he was never approached. Haidt’s case is also far from settled science. As The Verge notes, many academics dispute it: Boston College psychologist Peter Gray has called it a moral panic, and several large studies and meta-analyses have found little or no direct effect of social media use on teen mental health across whole populations. Haidt has supporters in academia too.

What the notes do show is how staff saw the stakes. They tied a public scientific debate directly to the litigation, and they talked about shaping what academics and the media said rather than answering the research. That is awkward for a company that has just taken a $9.89bn charge to settle with 52 US state attorneys general over teen mental health claims, and that was recently ordered to pay New Mexico $25bn, according to reports.

The bigger issue for the court is privilege. If documents that are “mainly public relations planning” were withheld as legal advice, the judge may order the wider re-review the plaintiffs want, and more internal papers could follow before trial.

What happens next in court

The plaintiffs want the extra documents reviewed by 30 November. Meta’s Washington team is also changing, with its top policy adviser Joel Kaplan due to leave in 2027. The next filings should show whether the “Whisper strategy” stayed on a meeting page or went further.

Sources

1. Exhibit E, “Well-being Meeting Sound-check Notes”, ECF 3604-6, In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction, MDL No. 3047 (N.D. Cal.), filed 23 October 2026 (PDF)
2. Plaintiffs’ reply to Meta’s status report, ECF 3604-1, MDL No. 3047 (PDF)
3. Stipulation on sealing, ECF 3604, MDL No. 3047, 23 October 2026 (PDF)
4. Andrew Gelman, “We interrupt our usual programming to inform you that I was never hired by Facebook to do a hit job on Jonathan Haidt”, 27 October 2026
5. The Verge, Meta discussed a “Whisper strategy” against Jonathan Haidt, 28 October 2026
6. New York Post, 27 October 2026

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